Mischievous
by Ace-Risk
Summary: Tai Lung has recently been freed from the spirit realm, and he has helped to save China. However after being accepted by the valley of peace and once again becoming one of its protectors, an old acquaintance reappears and will change his life forever... Spinoff story to 'Kung Fu Panda: Dark-Bright' Props to @Anidragmire for the cover. Story Complete!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Welcome to the first chapter of my first spinoff story! Like it says in the description, this story contains spoilers from my first fanfic called _Kung Fu Panda- Dark-Bright_. If you haven't read that story, then I recommend that you close this one and read that one first.**

 **Anyways, past the spoilers, this story will be mostly focused on Tai Lung and it starts not long after chapter 19 in my first story, this story will explain certain adventures the Snow Leopard has after returning from the spirit realm.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer for this chapter and all the rest: I do not own Kung Fu Panda**

Mischievous

Written by: Ace_Risk

Chapter 1

Distraction

The sun rose from the east side of the Jade Palace and began to cover the land in vibrant yellow light, as the light began to reach previously darker areas, the Valley of Peace began to wake up. Meanwhile, in a building perched high on top of a mountain, the sun began to penetrate through the paper walls in the Jade Palace Student Barracks which woke some of it's residents. One of these residents was a male Snow Leopard named Tai Lung, and he had woken up the second the light had touched the paper wall in his room. Tai Lung had just recently gotten used to waking up at this hour, and especially waking up in this place. For the past 24 years he had been completely unwelcome at the Jade Palace, or even the Valley of Peace for that matter, and not until 2 months ago had he been re-welcomed back into the village. And though he wouldn't admit it to anyone, he had really missed the feeling of being accepted and being honored. And though the things he had done earlier in his life had nearly tarnished his reputation, there had still been a select few individuals who had still believed in him, and to this he was eternally grateful. For nearly a quarter of a century, he hadn't had a place to call home, and now he did thanks to a generous and forgiving Panda called Po, or as Tai Lung would always refer to him 'the Dragon Warrior'. At first, Tai Lung had hated the Dragon Warrior and was jealous of the Panda's status which he had worked his entire life for, now however, his old ambition to become the Dragon Warrior had all but faded. And now his drive was simply to improve his skills and one day match the Dragon Warrior and perhaps even surpass him, he had always naturally been a competitive person and had always demanded a rematch when he would be defeated by the Panda, and the Panda never seemed to mind. As his thoughts went to the Panda, he also thought about how this day was going to be one of the most important days in Po's life. His wedding day. Tai Lung was never one for feelings for others and did not personally appreciate the idea of being in a relationship, however he felt very proud of the Panda mostly because he had found true happiness. Although the whole situation was slightly awkward for the Snow Leopard as the female that the Panda was getting married to was actually his adopted sister. And though he didn't mind the Panda marrying his sister, he felt slightly awkward at the thought that the Panda would technically be his brother-in-law soon. But he decided to discard this thought and instead focus on his morning training before he would attend the wedding. So he got up off of his bed and he changed into his training clothing which consisted of a pair of his signature purple training pants along with a new black training vest which had been given to him as a gift by the Dragon Warrior as thanks for his contribution to saving the valley. He then opened his door and headed on his way towards the Training Hall to start his routines.

But just as he entered the Training Hall, Tai Lung was stopped by a voice that said "nice vest." Tai Lung looked around to see where the voice had come from, and then a small 'thud' was heard right behind him. He looked behind him to see that the Panda who also wore his training clothes had jumped down from the Training Hall entrance and now stood behind him with a happy expression on his face. Tai Lung turned around and replied sarcastically to the Panda "shouldn't you be getting your rest before your big day Dragon Warrior?" At this, Po smiled and he walked over to the Leopard "I'm sure I can stay awake for my own wedding Tai." He said as he approached the Leopard holding his hand out for a handshake, Tai Lung obliged and shook the Pandas hand saying "I should hope so, you know what Tigress would do to you if you even lost focus for a second." Po rolled his eyes and replied "don't remind me..." At this Tai Lung chuckled and he said "so Dragon Warrior, would you be interested in joining me for training?" Po nodded and replied "absolutely." Tai Lung then nodded and the two began to make their way into the Training Hall, but just before the two entered, Tai Lung's ears perked up as he hear some sort of rustling sound in the vicinity. "Did you hear that?" He asked the Panda as he looked over to where he thought he heard the noise. Po then turned around as well and looked in the area where the Snow Leopard was scouting. "What did it sound like?" Po asked the Leopard. Tai Lung responded while still looking in the bushes just behind the Training Hall's courtyard "it sounded like someone was hiding in the bushes..." Po looked closely at the bushes where the Leopard was examining but he saw nothing and didn't hear any rustling noises, he could only see that there was a slight breeze that blew the sticks of the bushes slightly. "I don't hear anything, it was probably just the wind..." Po said as he left Tai Lung and went to enter the Training Hall. "Coming?" Po then called to the Leopard who still watched the bushes. Tai Lung responded without turning his head "Yeah..." After one last look at the bushes, Tai Lung decided that the Panda was right and he turned his back and went to join Po. But right before he entered the Training Hall, he turned his head back just to see if anything had moved, but nothing. So he went to join the Panda in his morning training.

 **8 Hours Later at the Bottom of Jade Mountain**

"You look absolutely beautiful Sister..." Tai Lung said to his sister as he stood beside the female Tiger who wore an incredibly gorgeous white trumpet style wedding dress with a veil. (Look this up to better imagine what Tigress' dress looks like) The female Tiger looked up at her older brother and said "thank you Tai, for everything..." Tai Lung smiled as he still looked down at his younger sister while she was getting her makeup done and her fur perfectly combed inside an enclosed tent with white fabric walls which was used for the wedding preparation. Tears began to form in Tigress' eyes as she began to get emotional, however he took his hand and soaked up the tears with his thumbs as he said with a smile "now now, you wouldn't want to spoil your makeup, now would you?" Tigress sniffed as she replied "I'm sorry Tai, it's just-" Tai Lung interrupted as he said "I know sister..." Just as the makeup artists finished with Tigress' makeup, they heard someone enter the tent, it was Crane. Crane had been the planner for the wedding and just like Po's wedding with Lu Shi, he had outdone himself, but this time he had really gone all out as this wedding was at least 4 times bigger than the last one and had the entire Valley of Peace attending. Crane then spoke out "alright everyone! Is everybody ready!?" Almost all of the people inside the tent including Shifu, Viper and the Bridesmaids all nodded their heads, however one voice asked "Umm, I'm sorry Master Crane, but what is my job again? I kind of forgot..." It was little Hao and he had been given the position of the Ring Bearer, however the poor little White Tiger Cub had seemed to forgotten his role. Crane then walked over to Hao and ran the Cub through his position "alright Hao, you are the Ring Bearer, and your job is to carry that pillow over there with the ring on it. Once your Mother, the Best Man, Shifu, the Bridesmaids and the Maid of Honor walk through the aisle, you and the Flower Girl will walk through the aisle slowly and once you arrive at the altair you will give the pillow with the ring to Shifu. Once you do that, you will return to your seat next to Mr Ping and Mr Shan. Did you get all of that?" At this, Hao nodded and he went and picked up the pillow with the ring on it. "he will be lucky to have Po for a father." Tai Lung said to his sister as they watched the Cub. "Yes, he will..." She responded. Tigress had asked for Tai Lung to be the Best Man during the wedding, not only because he was her brother, but also because she felt it would strengthen their bond. Tai Lung had kindly accepted this honor and now wore a formal silver and black traditional Chinese vest along with a pair of black slacks which made him look fitting in this setting.

Just then, they all began to hear the sound of instruments like violins and Chinese flutes playing the wedding song. Crane then said "okay! They're ready now!" Tigress then took a deep breath and she heard the voice of Shifu on her right "everything will be fine Tigress, just remember why you are here." Tigress smiled at her adoptive father and she replied "Okay Father, thank you." At her left side, stood Tai Lung and he also reassured the female Tiger "don't worry sister, everything will be perfect." Just then, the curtains of the tent were lifted, which revealed a carpet floor aisle which led through a pathway of at least 20 benches full of residents to a Gazebo where there stood the Groom. The weather was absolutely perfect with the skies completely clear and the venue at the bottom of Jade Mountain was absolutely stunning thanks to all the work that Crane had done to prepare it. Tigress, Tai Lung and Shifu all walked in a line through the pathway towards the Altair with Tai Lung still on the left, Tigress in the middle and Shifu on the right. The Bridesmaids followed closely behind along with the Maid of Honor (Viper) followed by the Flower Girl and the Ring Bearer (Hao) They all walked slowly up to the Altair with the instruments still playing the wedding song. But just as things were going so smoothly, Tai Lung felt one of the Bridesmaids behind him accidentally step on his tail, this sent a shock through his whole body and he just wanted to attack the Bridesmaid right then and there, however he thought better of it as he remembered where he was.

As they approached the Altair, Tai Lung noticed just how good Po looked as the groom, Po wore a formal black Chinese long sleeve robe with silver dragon markings along with a pair of black slacks underneath, this outfit made the Panda look very sophisticated. His fur was nicely combed and the robe made his athletic physique show quite well. Once they finally approached the Altair, Tai Lung looked into his sister's eyes and he nodded as if to say 'you've got this.' Tigress smiled back at him and then Tai Lung went back to his seat at the edge of one of the nearby benches. Once he was seated, Hao delivered the ring to Shifu who gave his daughter his blessing. Tai Lung then looked over at Po and saw that the Panda gave him a small nod, the Leopard knew exactly what the Panda meant by this, for just before the two had parted ways to prepare for the wedding, the two had spoken about a certain subject matter.

 **2 Hours Before the Wedding**

"Tai, I know there's going to be a lot going on today, what with the wedding and all, but could you do me a favor?" Tai Lung raised an eyebrow at the Panda's request and he responded "A favor?" Po nodded his head and continued "this whole wedding is a great chance for any thieve, thieves or bandits to strike. Almost all the valley residents will be attending and so there won't be anyone to alert us if a raid or robbery is happening, so I wanted to ask you if you could keep an eye out during the ceremony for any sort of criminal activity." Tai Lung smiled and he replied "it will be done."

 **Present Moment**

Tai Lung remembered the Pandas words as he watched the wedding ceremony continue, everything seemed to be going smoothly as Tigress and Po were now standing before each other at the Altair. As far as Tai Lung could notice, there was no sign of any criminal activity, but he staid attentive in his seat staying ready for anything. Just then, the wedding officiant began to recite the vows for the Bride and the Groom, he was a middle aged male Rhino who had come all the way from the capital of Beijing and his name was Hunli Ren. Tai Lung had actually met Hunli when he was younger, when he was a teen, Tai Lung and his father had went on a Kung Fu meeting in Beijing and at the meeting, he had met Hunli and had made great friends with the rhino as he was actually related to the great Master Thundering Rhino. Now seeing the male Rhino having come this far in his career, Tai Lung felt a small degree of pride for his old childhood friend. But just as Hunli began to recite the vows, Tai Lung's ears began to perk up from a scurrying sound that he heard beyond the benches and near a building in the town. He then looked back to behind his seat at the building, many of the residents in the seats behind him raised an eyebrow at why the Leopard was looking back at a time like this. But then, Tai Lung's eyes picked up a blur of motion near the building where he had seen the noise, so he turned around to face Po and he saw the Panda nod again, this was his cue, so he got out of his seat and ran off after the culprit. Once he arrived at the building where he had heard the sound, he used his senses to scope out the perpetrator. And sure enough, as he listened closely for any type of disturbance, he once again heard a scurrying noise, and this time it was close. He turned his head around once again and this time, he saw a figure run from an open walkway behind the building to an alleyway in the village. So he pursued the figure as quickly as he could on all fours for extra traction on the ground. When he turned around the corner though, he noticed that there wasn't just one figure, there were three disguised figures. Once they noticed that they had been found, the three figures split up and each went in a different direction. Tai Lung knew he couldn't follow all three so he followed the one that went in the middle direction who was the one that he had originally chased. He ran on all fours to catch up to the figure who also ran on all fours, it was now that Tai Lung noticed that the stole away had a gray and white tail with black spots on it. It had to be a fellow snow Leopard. As he chased the figure, the figure ducked and dodged some of the obstacles in the alleyway such as food stands, carts and also the walls of other buildings. Just then, Tai Lung noticed that the stole away was carrying a black bag that was full. 'Whoever they are they're a thief!' Tai Lung thought to himself as he chased the figure relentlessly. As the figure managed to evade him Tai Lung also thought to himself "and whoever they are, they're good..." But the chase didn't last much longer as the thief quickly reached a dead end and was cornered by Tai Lung who grinned and he said "end of the line..." The thief turned around and Tai Lung noticed that they were wearing a black Fukumen (Ninja headdress) and a black Uwagi (Ninja jacket). However he could only see the right eye of the thief as the other one was covered in the headdress, but their right eye was gold in color and almost looked like it reflected light. But the figure didn't look like it was going to give up so easily and it got into a fighting stance, at this, Tai Lung said "come quietly or someone will have to get hurt..." But this didn't get the reaction Tai Lung had hoped for as the thief kept their fighting stance and didn't back down, so he now began to approach also getting into a fighting stance. But as he began to approach, he noticed that the stole away was staring off at something behind him as if something of great importance as behind him, so he said "what are you looking at?..." He said as he turned his head around to see what they were looking at, but there was nothing. Just then he heard a noise that sounded like nails scratching on a stone wall so he turned his head back at the thief and he noticed that the stole away had climbed up the stone wall and had gotten up to the top. "Son of a Bi-"

He then noticed the figure look down upon him mockingly and then jump down from the top of the wall into another alleyway. Hey then growled as he knew he had let his guard down and he yelled "hey! Come back here!" He then performed a wall jump and managed to scale the wall now seeing that the stole away was now fleeing through the alleyway still with the bag in hand. Tai Lung growled as he now jumped into the new alleyway and once again pursued the thief. This time he ran much faster than before as he was angry with the thief's persistence, he chased her through the alleyway until he decided to jump onto the roof of a building so he could get a better view of her movement patterns. As he ran on the shingled rooftops, he noticed that they were headed towards another dead end and so he ran as fast as he could to catch up before they could get over the next wall. And just as he saw the thief getting ready to jump over the wall he shouted "OH NO YOU DON'T!" as he launched himself forward for a powerful kick. The figure heard the shout and turned around, but failed to brace themselves for Tai Lung's powerful kick which hit the thief right in the belly and sent them flying at the wall at the end of the valley. The thief hit the wall hard which made a loud 'thud!' sound followed by a yelp of pain by the figure, but the cry of pain sounded more like a feminine voice than a masculine voice. But Tai Lung didn't care and he took this as an opportunity and he rushed the thief pinning them to the wall by both of their arms. The move had successfully immobilized the thief, but when Tai Lung realized the position he was in, he instantly blushed in embarrassment. He had pinned the thief to the wall, but his body was basically up against the thief's, this made for an awkward and embarrassing moment for both the Leopards. Each of them blushed and Tai Lung immediately removed his body from the thief's and shook his head trying to get back his focus. He then got back to business and demanded "where did your companions go? What did you steal!?" The figure seemed to mock him as they said in a feminine voice almost completely ignoring his questions "you're good, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that you're the infamous 'Tai Lung'?" Tai Lung wasn't satisfied with this as the female Snow Leopard had completely dodged his question and he spoke again "I'll ask you one more time...WHERE DID YOUR COMPANIONS GO!?" This time Tai Lung tried to say this with as much ferocity as possible to intimidate the thief. The thief even though they had a headdress seemed to smiled mockingly as they weren't fazed at all by Tai Lung's attempts to intimidate her. "such ferocity...have you reverted to your old ways?" The female Snow Leopard mocked him. This only served to anger Tai Lung more as she was wasting his time, so he then said "it's obvious you know a lot about me, but just what is that mask hiding?" As he said this, Tai lung unsheathed his claw on his right index finger, and then he used the finger to slowly pry off the mask that was concealing all but the thief's right eye. Once he had lifted the mask off the thief, he recognized exactly who the female Leopard was, she had a normal face for a female Snow Leopard, but in her left eye was a prosthetic blue eye which could only mean one thing…

"Su!?" Tai Lung said in shock as he realized who the female Leopard was. Su then laughed as she said "surprised?" Tai Lung the pinned the female Snow Leopard to the wall again and said "how did you escape!?" At this, the female Leopard laughed and replied "do you think that flimsy prison in the mountains could really keep me locked up forever?" Tai Lung knew what she meant by this, back 24 years ago, he had been transferred to Chor Gohm Prison after his crimes towards the valley of peace. And when he had initially been sent to the prison, he had been placed in a regular cell, and shortly after he had arrived at the prison, three other criminals had been sent to the prison and were put inside a cell right next to his. Their names were Wan, Wing and Su and they had been notorious all over China as some of the greatest criminals in the history of the country known as the 'Wu Sisters'. However he hadn't really gotten to know them well as he had broken out of his first cell shortly after they arrived. And once he had been caught again and place in his high security cell at the bottom of the prison, he had never seen them again. But now he had the leader of the Wu Sisters pinned against the wall and he said "never mind that, all that matters is that you're headed back to prison and returning the things you stole..." But before Tai Lung had the chance to tie the female Snow Leopard up and retrieve the stolen items, Su spoke back to Tai Lung and said "you know, during our time in that prison, I never realized how handsome you are..." As she said this, Tai Lung's muscles went stiff and he began to blush slightly "excuse me?" He said in shock as his grip on her arms began to weaken. As he said this though, Su gently removed his paws from his grasp on her and instead, she put her paws against his chest and she said "I said I never realized just how handsome of a man you are..." As she said this, she began to move her face closer to his. The shocked male Snow Leopard said "wait, what are you doing..." But just as he said this, Su suddenly pressed her lips against his and began to kiss the shocked Snow Leopard. Tai Lung didn't know how to respond right now with the female Snow Leopard pressing her lips against his, but his body instinctively closed his eyes and pressed her against the wall now leaning into the kiss. However, Su had secretly intended to use this as a distraction, and while the two kissed, she leaned her right foot over to a floorboard which was balancing on a brick with a heavy bucket of water on the other side. She then used her foot to press on the floorboard and catapult the bucket of water right into Tai Lung's face. The bucket of water hit the unsuspecting Tai Lung right in his face and splashed water all over the Snow Leopard's face. This served to distract him while Su removed herself from him and grabed the bag of stolen items, she knew this wouldn't distract him for long and so for insurance, she kicked him right in the manhood this earning her a high pitched yelp of pain from him. As he fell to the ground covering his 'manly area' out of pain, Su used this as a distraction and she jumped to the top of the wall. She had to laugh at the fact that a lethal Kung Fu Master could be brought to their knees by a simple kick in the manhood. She then said "until next time handsome!" as she blew a kiss towards the Snow Leopard who was still on the ground from the pain but had seen her do this. She then winked and she left the Snow Leopard in the alley as she made her escape.

Tai Lung then muttered to himself in pain "fool me once, shame on you...Fool me twice, shame on me..." And after a couple of minutes of laying on the ground wet and in pain, the pain began to wear off and he got up from the ground and he muttered to himself again "alright Su...It's on..."

 **A/N: Hope you enjoyed the first chapter into this first spinoff story that I will be writing! I plan to update this story at least once every 3 days and make about 10 chapters total for this story, so stay tuned for future updates! If you like this story and wish for me continue it, favorite it, follow and most importantly**

 **Review!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Another Thing Coming

Tai Lung slumped his shoulders as he walked back to the Jade Palace still covered in water from when the water bucket had spilled in his face earlier. Right now he felt embarrassed as he had let his guard down not once, but twice. 'That treacherous little liar...' He thought as he walked back up the 1000 steps with drops of water slowly falling off of his damp fur. In fact, the entire way back to the palace Tai Lung had thought of the female Snow Leopard who had tricked him and escaped his custody earlier, he was angered by the fact that she had tricked him so easily. However it wasn't just this that he thought about, for he had been confused as to the female Snow Leopard's methods of distracting him, he had been in many fights in the past and never before had someone try to distract him with shows of affection. But what made him even more confused was why he had gone along with it and had actually kissed her back instead of trying to get her off. 'What was I thinking? Why did I do that?' he thought to himself as he was now climbing up the last few steps up to the Palace. It was now almost dark out and the sun was quickly setting over the mountains in the distance thus making a twilight like setting casting over the valley. Once he had finally reached the top of the steps, he began to feel tired after the long day and decided he would retreat to his room for the night, so he headed over to the student barracks.

Things were quiet near the Jade Palace student barracks, and Tai Lung didn't want to wake anyone or make any unnecessary noise so he quietly sneaked into the building. When he entered the building, he was glad to see that no one was in the hallway, so he quietly walked through the hallway which led to the quarters. However when he got further down the hallway, he began to hear voices talking in one of the rooms and once he turned the corner, he saw that the light in the dinning room was lit and the voices were coming from that room. Tai Lung snuck towards the room as he didn't want the people in the room to hear him. When he had gotten right next to the room, he could now identify the voices, it was Po and Tigress. As he eavesdropped on the newly married couple's conversation, he heard Tigress say "what kind of brother leaves his own sister's wedding? I mean does he have no shame at all!?" Tai Lung then heard Po chuckle slightly at this and respond "well, I'm sure he had a good reason Tigress-" He then heard his sister interrupt her husband as she blurted out "to leave his sisters wedding!? I swear the next time I see him, he's dead!" Tai Lung cringed at this, he knew his sister could be quite extreme at times, but every time she would make a threat, she would usually follow through. So Tai Lung peaked into the room and saw that Tigress and Po both sat at a table with a couple of candles lighting the room. They had both changed out of their wedding clothes and Tigress now wore a green robe which resembled her golden and red robe closely. Po wore a light blue Chinese vest and had a new pair of black slacks on. Luckily for him, Tigress had her back turned to him so she couldn't see him, but Po could, and the Panda had immediately spotted him but luckily for Tai Lung, he didn't reveal the Leopard's position. Tai Lung then heard his sister say in a slightly agitated tone "he has some nerve! If he comes back here, I'm going to make him wish he had stayed in the spirit realm!" Tai Lung winced at his sister's harsh words and he decided that he was going to attempt to sneak over to his room to avoid getting caught by the angry female Tiger. So he began to tiptoe through the hallway as quietly as he could, as he did so he could hear Po saying "Tigress you don't need to stress so much over it, I'm sure he had a good reason..." But again Tigress interrupted him and said "I don't care if he what he had going on! Nothing is more important than-Wait what are you looking at Po?" She said as she noticed that Po's eyes were not on her and he was rather looking at something behind her in the hall. She turned her head to see what her husband was looking at and instantly, Tai Lung thought 'crap.'

"You! Where the hell have you been!? You'd better have a damn good reason for you to leave my wedding!" Tigress snapped as she spotted the Snow Leopard trying to sneak past the doorway. Tai Lung didn't didn't respond and rather backed up into the wall behind him to get away from the obviously angry female Tiger, but unfortunately he was now cornered and before he could escape Tigress got out of her chair and walked right up to the now nervous Snow Leopard. "Huh? I said you'd better have a good reason for missing your own sister's wedding!" She said in a very agitated tone as she was now just inches away from him, preventing him from escaping. "Look, Tigress I can explain-" Tai Lung tried to reason with her before she interrupted him "the only reason I'm not beating you to a pulp right now is because Hao is sleeping in the other room, so consider yourself lucky..." Tai Lung then noticed when he looked behind his sister who stood before him that Po was still seated on his chair and was chuckling as he watched the seen without intervening. Tai Lung then looked as though he was going to reply to his sister when she abruptly interrupted him before he had a chance to speak and she said "you know what? Never mind, I don't even care what you have to say..." She then got out of the Leopard's space and stepped back and addressed her husband "Po, I'm going to bed now, are you coming?" At this, Po got up out of his seat and nodded as he replied "okay Ti, I'll just be a few minutes." At this Tigress winked at the Panda and said in a suggestive manner "well you'd better not be too late or else I may not be so gentle tonight..." Tai Lung just cringed at his sister's vulgar behavior towards the Panda as she seemed to not even care that he was listening. Po smiled at her and he replied with a slight chuckle "I wouldn't dream of it." Tigress then winked at the Panda and left while glancing at her brother with a look of disgust. Once she was out of earshot Tai Lung heard Po chuckling slightly as the Panda said with a smile "what happened to you..." Tai Lung now looked at himself and noticed that his once elegant silver vest was still damp from the water that had spilled on him earlier. But instead of answering the question, he sarcastically replied "thanks for the help..." Po just kept chuckling as he said "hey, I wanted to help, but I know when not to get between a Tigress and her prey."

Tai Lung just responded now answering the Panda's question "I heard some sounds that sounded like someone was scurrying behind some of the houses in the valley, so I went and searched the area where I had heard the noise." Po regained his composure and he asked "and?" Tai Lung responded "sure enough, there was someone behind one of the buildings, they were masked and they were carrying a black bag full of items. I knew they were a thief, so I chased them through the alleyway, until I found out that there were three of them..." Po listened attentively to the Snow Leopard's story. Then Tai Lung continued "but they all split up, so I chased the one that I had before and I eventually got them cornered..." Po then raised an eyebrow as he said "and did you unmask them?" Tai Lung nodded and he responded "yes, and you won't believe who it was...It was Su Wu." But to Tai Lung's surprise, the Panda didn't look surprised but rather troubled "the Wu Sisters have returned?...This is not good..." Po said as he stroked his chin with his hand. Tai Lung responded "what do you mean?" Po didn't look at the Snow Leopard but he replied "well, shortly after I defeated Kai the Spirit Warrior, the Wu Sisters all escaped from Chor Gohm prison, however they did not cause any more criminal activity and rather just fled the country..." Tai Lung raised an eyebrow and replied "fled? To where?" Po still didn't look at Tai Lung but he replied "they fled to Mongolia and haven't returned since, the royal guards gave up chase after all the leads had gone and so they were unheard from for months...But now seeing as how they've returned is troubling..." Tai Lung now understood why the Panda was so troubled. "And let me guess, they got away?" Po said as he now looked at the Snow Leopard. Tai Lung just growled slightly at this and he replied "Yes...I had Su cornered and was about to aprehend her but then she distracted me..." Po now had a smile and he raised an eyebrow as he asked "Oh? And how exactly did she distract you? You aren't the exactly the easiest person to catch off guard..." Tai Lung instantly blushed and looked quite embarrassed but he replied sounding slightly annoyed "I...She...hthat's none of your business Dragon Warrior!" At this Po laughed and said "sure...So do you know where they escaped to?" Po noticed that Tai Lung slumped his shoulders and his ears fell which probably meant that the Snow Leopard hadn't seen where they had gotten away to. So Po responded "alright, common and follow me." He then went into the dinning room and took one of the candles in his hand and pt out the others, then he led the Leopard through the hallways of the barracks and then he led Tai Lung outside towards the Main building of the Jade Palace.

Once the two reached the Hall of Heroes, Tai Lung asked the Panda "why have we come here Dragon Warrior?" Po looked back at the Snow Leopard behind him and he replied "well Tai, do you know exactly what the Wu sisters stole from the valley today?" Tai Lung shook his head but he answered "well, no, but it looked like a couple of small things judging by the size of Su's bag..." Po nodded at the Snow Leopard and he replied "precisely but let me show exactly what they stole." Po then led Tai Lung into the hall of Heroes where the entire room was dimly lit by candles and Po led Tai Lung over to a stand that had a label on it that read _'Gong Lu Medallion'_. "The Gong Lu Medallion!? But why would they steal that?" (for those of you who don't know what the Gong Lu Medallion is, it amplifies the wearers abilities, but it also exposes their darkest emotions) Panda looked back at the Snow Leopard and answered "and that's not the only thing they stole..." Po then led Tai Lung over to another plaque which read _'Sapphire and_ _Ruby Zen Bracelets'_ Tai Lung raised an eyebrow and asked "but why would they want to steal all of these things? Surely it can't just be because they like Jewelry..." Po shook his head at this and replied "it's unlikely that the Wu sisters know exactly how all of these artifacts work, and that's why this worries me..." Tai Lung raised an eyebrow again as he asked "what do you mean?" Po then responded with a worried tone "I mean, this probably suggest that they stole the items for another person..." Tai Lung now understood why the Panda was so worried, but he still had a question "wait I still don't understand, why they would only steal these particular items?" Po then explained "well, I'm sure you know that when the Gong Lu Medallion is placed on the wearer's neck it grants them much greater abilities, but at the cost of one's sanity. But the when the Sapphire and Ruby Zen Bracelets are placed on the wearers wrists they actually counter the effects of the Gong Lu Medallion and make it so that the wearer can actually control their power..." Tai Lung now completely understood what the Panda meant. "So whoever they stole the items for will have much greater power than before...Well we can't let them deliver them to their employer!" Po smiled at the Leopard's determination but he replied "patience, first we must rest, tomorrow first thing in the morning we will set off to find them and bring them back to justice." Tai Lung wanted to argue with the Panda but he too realized that it was far to late at night to actually be able to catch the 3 sisters and he also began to feel slight fatigue after the long day. "I guess you're right, besides we wouldn't want to upset Tigress anymore than before..." Po looked at the Leopard and rolled his eyes as he said "yeah, no kidding..."

Once the two returned back at the student barracks, they parted ways as Po went towards his new larger room that he now shared with his wife. "first thing in the morning tomorrow meet me at the Palace Gates and make sure you come prepared, it's a going to be a long journey..." Tai Lung simply nodded and left towards his room. But when Po opened the door to his room he was met by Tigress who was right in his face, Po jumped out of shock and said "ah! Tigress!" She had her arms crossed and she said "what journey?" As she got closer to him almost putting her body against his and cornering him into the wall behind him. 'Crap, she heard that...' He thought to himself as he backed up from her. "Uhh, what journey? I don't know what you're talking about..." he lied trying to act like he didn't know. He didn't want Tigress to come along with them as he felt that his feelings for her would cloud his judgment. She just smiled and said "you're a terrible liar Po, I heard you and Tai out there talking about some sort of journey, where are you going?" Po was cornered and had almost run out of excuses but he still lied as he said "it was nothing Tigress, I swear!" Tigress now had an evil grin as she said "very well, if you intend to keep lying to me, then I get to have my way tonight..." Po instantly looked worried and he said "no. Tigress don't, please..." But it was too late, for Tigress had already made up her mind and she dragged him by the arm into their room and closed the door behind them…

 **Early the Next Morning at the Palace Gates**

Tai Lung waited patiently at the Palace Gates for the Panda who had asked him to meet here the day before. Just then, Tai Lung saw Po walking down the steps from the Student Barracks and he waited for the Panda to arrive. "What took you so long?" Tai Lung said with a grin as the Panda approached looking almost like he was in pain. Po just replied "you don't want to know..." Tai Lung chuckled and he replied "Tigress?" Po just nodded his head and walked past Tai Lung without saying anything. Tai Lung then spoke "so where are we going anyway?" He followed Po who went down the stairs and Po replied "well, we're going to Hubei Volcano." Tai Lung followed up by asking "and that's where you believe we will find them?" Po nodded and said "well, usually the best place to find someone is their home..." Tai Lung followed the Panda and agreed "that's a good point..."

 **Meanwhile in a Lair in Hubei Volcano**

"Sister! You managed to escape!" Wan said to her older sister who had just entered their underground fortress. "Of course I escaped, did you really think he would catch me?" Wan raised an eyebrow and she asked "he?" Su for some reason blushed when her sister asked this, she didn't know why, but thinking about Tai Lung made her feel strange. "Uh...He...Never mind that! All that matters is that I got the things we need..." Su said as she stumbled across her words. At this her sisters both giggled and Wing asked "he what Su? You're turning redder by the second..." Su wasn't happy of her sisters mockery of her and she responded by hissing at them and unsheathing her claws in a threatening way. This had the effect she wanted and it silenced her sisters as they both quivered in fear of their older sister. "So as I was saying, I got the three items that our employer requested so be ready to welcome them when they arrive!" At this her sisters replied "yes sister!" And they left to adhere to their sister's wishes.

 **5 Hours Later at the Bottom of Hubei Volcano**

Po and Tai Lung had finally arrived at the Volcano, they had traveled for nearly 5 hours and as they looked up at the massive mountain Tai Lung said out loud to be heard over the loud sounds of the Volcano erupting "are you serious!? What Idiot builds their home inside an active Volcano!?" Po laughed out loud at this and he replied "you're girlfriend apparently." Tai Lung growled at this and he said "she's not my girlf-" "Calm down, I'm just teasing you, now common, it's a perilous way up and we'll need to keep moving!" And with that, Po went on his way up with Tai Lung following closely behind. Po had heard all about a lot of the legends of the great Kung Fu Masters and one of those tales was the story of how Masters Ox, Croc and Rhino all became legends. It had happened right at this mountain years ago when the three young Kung Fu Masters defeated the Wu Sisters and restored peace to China. This was one of his favorite stories that he used to tell to others as he used to be a huge fan of Master Rhino along with Ox and Croc but the part he liked the most of all about the story was how each of the Masters had learned a valuable lesson and worked together to achieve something truly special.

Now, Po and Tai Lung were scaling the mountain and noticed that the temperature began to rise greatly the father they went up the volcano. This made their ascent slower as they had to find their way around massive lava flows and lakes of hot lava. Luckily for them though, there was a pathway that led through safer areas of the mountain, this was probably the same pathway that the Wu sisters used to scale the mountain. They followed this pathway of carved rocks and bridges over top of some of the lava flows and eventually they reached a massive lava lake and noticed that the stone bridge that once allowed passage tot he other side had cracked and fallen into the molten rock. "How do we get across now?" Tai Lung spoke loudly still trying to speak over the loud rumbling sounds made by the active volcano. Po went up to the edge of the massive cliff leading to the lake of lava and he said "we can't turn back now...We'll have to jump..." Tai Lung seemed surprised by the Panda's suggestion and he questioned "jump!? The closest cliff to us is almost 30 feet away!" Po looked disappointed in his comrade and he said "are you saying that you can't do it?" Tai Lung looked a bit offended by this and he replied "well no but-" "just take a running start at it and focus all your energy into your legs, I'll go first." Po said with a face of determination. "you're crazy! We should find a different way around!" Tai Lung said in a disbelieving tone. Po now looked upset and impatient with his friend and he stated "we don't have the time to find another way! Now do you want to bring the Wu sisters to justice or not!?" Tai Lung didn't have any other suggestions and so he just said "fine! Go first then..." Po then walked back a significant distance from the edge of the cliff, he too was a bit nervous about jumping over top of the lake of lava, but he stayed brave and he got ready to take a running start. With much of his power he launched himself forward running very quickly and then used his right foot right at the edge of the cliff to send him into the air almost flying over the massive chasm with great velocity, he then landed on the other side with about a foot to spare and rolled to recover. 'What!? How did he manage to jump across that massive chasm!? Never mind, if he can do it than I can...' Tai Lung thought as he backed up to get a running start just like the Panda had before him, he began to feel quite arrogant and believed that he could jump even farther than the Panda, so he lined up for the jump. Then he shot off almost as fast as Po had and he rapidly rushed towards the , but in his overconfidence, he accidentally jumped to early and he noticed this as he flew through the air. But just as he began to fall into the chasm, time seemed to slow down and he saw the Panda rush to the edge and lower his jade staff for the Leopard to catch. Reacting as fast as he could, he grabbed the Po's Yin & Yang staff and held on for his life. "HANG ON!" Po yelled as he lifted the heavy Leopard up from certain doom which lay hundreds of feet below. Tai Lung just held the staff with his right hand and allowed the Panda to lift him up. Po managed to lift Tai Lung up to the cliff saving the Snow Leopard's life. When Tai Lung let go, both of the Warriors were panting heavily, Tai Lung from his near death experience and Po from the stress of nearly losing one of his friends. As Po recovered his breath, he asked "you okay?" Tai Lung looked back at Po and said "thanks to you...I owe you one..." Po nodded and replied "alright, common, we're close now..." And at that, the two Warriors kept moving on towards the Wu Sisters fortress taking extra caution now.

Once Po and Tai Lung had successfully entered the Wu Sisters Fortress, they navigated their way through many dim torch lit corridors stealthily. However upon reaching a brighter light beyond one of the hallways, they began to hear faint voice up ahead, "we're close..." Po whispered as he and Tai Lung quietly made their way through the hall towards the voices. As the got closer to the voices, the light began to gradually get brighter, they noticed that the hallway branched off into two separate hallways which went left and right. "I'll go right?" Po whispered to the Leopard, at this Tai Lung nodded and stealthily went through the left hall as Po did the same through the right hall. As Tai Lung went through the hall, the voices began to get closer and he stayed attentive but he kept on going until the hallway until the hallway curved around. He peaked his head out into the new part to see if the coast was clear, sure enough it was and so he kept going. However shortly after, he saw Po up ahead in the hall approaching him, they both noticed that there was now a large doorway with engraving in the stone that looked like the head of a Snow Leopard. They both propped themselves against the wall on opposite sides of the doorway and listened to what the voices inside the room were talking about.

As the two listened into the conversation, they heard a voice they had never heard before, it sounded rough and intimidating, it was definitely male. "I trust you got what I demanded Su..." A new voice now spoke "Yes Jian, all three..." It was Su. It was obvious that there was some sort of exchange going on, and Po and Tai Lung both got closer to hear everything. "I should hope so Su...For your sake..." The male voice said again. Po looked over at Tai Lung and he whispered "we can't let them exchange those artifacts..." Tai Lung then whispered back "what's the plan?" At this Po came up with an idea and whispered "well, our best chance to get them all is to catch them by surprise, so I think we should sneak into the room, get as close as we can, and then jump them." Tai Lung agreed with this plan and he whispered back "alright, lead the way." But in his head, Tai Lung was quite restless as he wanted to get even with Su after his humiliating defeat to her the day before. 'Alright Su, if you think you can make a fool of me, you've got another thing coming...' He thought to himself.

 **A/N: There's chapter 2. Took me a little longer to finish than I had expected, but I plan to release the next one sooner so stay tuned. Remember to favorite, follow and**

 **Review!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Rash and Bold

"I hear you talking Su, but you have yet to show me the items that I requested..." The voice said as Po and Tai Lung observed the seen from the doorway. They still couldn't tell who or what the person was as the Wu Sisters were each standing in the way blocking the Warrior's view, however Po knew that whoever it was, he had never heard this voice before. Then Su spoke as she brought a small bag from behind her back and said "of course Jian, we never fail." At this Po whispered to Tai Lung "alright, now's our chance. We have to get as close as we can without being spotted." Tai Lung nodded at this, but at this moment, he began to feel a rising anger in himself as he heard Su's voice 'you won't get away this time Su...' He thought to himself as he followed the Panda's lead quietly using the stone support pillars as hiding spots. Po and Tai Lung were mere feet away from their targets and they could now clearly able to hear the voices of the Wu Sisters and their anonymous employer. "Here they are Jian. But I just have one question...What exactly do you plan to do with them?" Su spoke to her employer as she handed the bag of artifacts over. It was then that Po turned to the other side of the pillar and managed to get a clear view on the Wu Sisters employer which they called 'Jian'. He was an average height male Asiatic Lion with beige fur color along with a brown mane around his neck. Jian wore a black robe along with black slacks that strangely to Po, did not look of Chinese design. He then turned around and was about to say something to the Snow Leopard who he had thought was right next to him, however when Po turned he was stunned to see that Tai Lung wasn't there. And to make things worse, he looked out from behind the pillar and saw that the Snow Leopard was sneaking over to the targets on his own. 'What is he doing!?' Po thought to himself. But then as if to make things even worse, he heard the Snow Leopard yell "SU!" At this, all of the Wu Sisters turned around to face the Snow Leopard who was now charging his way over to them almost like he was in a fit of rage. 'Damnit! So much for the element of surprise...' Po thought to himself as he watched the Leopard approach the Wu Sisters.

"Ah, Tai Lung, how nice of you to interrupt us...Sisters!" Su called as her and her sisters unsheathed their claws and joined their tails to perform their signature vortex attack. Tai Lung then got into his fighting stance and braced himself for the sisters collaborate attack, as the sisters flew towards him he prepared to launch a counter attack. They came soaring at him with great velocity creating a swirl of red energy and deadly claw strikes, Tai Lung ducked underneath their attack just in time and just while they passed over top of him, he Launched himself upward breaking the connection of the sisters right in the center of the circle thus making all the sisters fly off in different directions as a result of their velocity. While Tai Lung was keeping the sisters occupied, Po saw that Jian was attempting to escape with the items, so he jumped out of his hiding spot to intercept the Lion. 'Not on my watch...' Po thought as he jumped out in front of the escaping Lion. "Going somewhere Jian?" He said with a smirk as he landed in front of the Lion. Jian didn't seem happy with the Panda's interference and he replied "get out of my way you insignificant Panda!" Po just laughed as he said "oh I don't think that's going to happen..." As he said this, Po put his Jade Staff behind his back and unsheathed his claws getting into a fighting stance. Jian now seemed irritated with the Panda and he said "I'm going to wipe that confident smile off your face if I have to claw your mouth clean off Panda!" Po wasn't intimidated at the slightest by the Lions rhetoric and he answered "show me what you've got then, let's see if you can even land a hit on me..." Po's taunts worked as Jian responded with a deep growl and unsheathed the claws on his free hand. "Alright Panda you've just sealed your fate..."

At this Jian charged Po swiping his paws at Po trying to scratch the Panda with his sharp claws, each strike could have seriously injured Po. However none of the strikes came even close to Po as he reacted so quickly that none of Jian's attempts were sufficient enough to hit Po as he dodged each attack with ease. After nearly a minute of frustration, Jian had enough and took his most powerful punch and shot his fist forward at his opponent. However Po saw this coming and he too sent his most powerful punch at the Lion's fist, both fists clashed against one another, but one of them was triumphant. Jian pulled his fist back in pain as his knuckles now bled from the impact of hitting Po's fist. "Ohow! What in the devil are your fists made of!?" Jian yelled in pain as he looked upon his now bloody fist. Po didn't respond but just cracked a smile as his fist had been completely unharmed as he had trained for moments like these by punching the Ironwood Tress outside of the palace like his wife had once done. Jian was again offended by the Panda's confident attitude and he fought through the pain and lashed out at Po using his claws again to try to scratch him. But each swipe was as unsuccessful as the last with Jian consistently missing the far more powerful Panda. Po was also getting fed up with Jian's lack of potential so he decided to end the fight, he waited until he had the best opportunity and when Jian went for a jab right for Po's face, he ducked just enough for the punch to barely miss his head, then he swiftly launched himself up from the ground delivering a powerful knee right to the Lion's chin sending Jian flying and crashing up against a wall and yelping out in pain. Once he straightened his jaw back after the massive impact, Jian then got the bracelets out of the bag and placed each of them on his wrists and then he took the Gong Lu Medallion and placed it around his neck. "Alright Panda, you may have won round one, but now I will smash you into oblivion!" Jian said getting up from the ground and approaching Po with a more determined look on his face. Po still wasn't worried because he knew something that Jian didn't about the artifacts and he would exploit this weakness. For he knew that the Gong Lu Medallion greatly increased the wearers abilities, but with the bracelets it actually supresses the power of the medallion by a great amount. So he got back into his fighting stance and signaled for Jian to attack him, this only served to upset Jian even more and he thought to himself 'does that pathetic fool still think he stands a chance even with the power of all three of the artifacts!? I will show him...' Jian then used the new found energy from the artifacts and created a ball of destructive energy which he launched at the Panda. Po however did not attempt to block or dodge the attack, instead he swung his right hand at the light red ball of energy and completely shattered incoming attack. This appalled Jian as he never expected that the Panda could simply punch the attack and completely break it. The Lion was now nervous as he had tried his hardest to defeat the Panda, however none of his attempts had even come close. 'who is this guy!? How is he this powerful!?' Jian thought to himself as he now feared the Panda slightly. But just then, before Jian could prepare to attack again, Po rushed him with great speed and kicked the Lion hard in the gut which sent Jian crashing into another wall and this time making a crack in the wall. Now out of frustration, Jian dislodged himself from the wall and created two more energy attacks which he hurled towards the Panda with each of his hands. However, again Po destroyed the attacks with each of his fists and now he charged Jian who was cornered into a wall, he then delivered a powerful jab right at the Lion's face which forced Jian into the wall again and greatly hurting the Asiatic Lion. Jian was now almost out of energy as he was in a great amount of pain from each time the Panda had hit him, "What are you..." Jian said to the Panda angrily as he couldn't understand why a Giant Panda was so powerful. Po walked up to the immobilized Lion and said "I'm the Dragon Warrior, the protector of China...And you're on my turf…"

As Po said this, Jian tried to surprise Po by throwing a punch at the Panda's chest, but Po noticed the Lion's intention, and he managed to catch Jian's fist in his paw. Po was unhappy with Jian's cowardice now and he responded by applying a lot of pressure to the Lion's paw, this earned him a cry of pain from Jian who's paw was being pulverized. But now realizing that he was almost torturing the Lion, he stopped and let go of Jian's paw. While he was recovering, Jian then thought of an idea 'what if I can distract him somehow? If I can get the Wu Sisters to help me out, we can defeat this guy!' He then looked over and saw that the female Snow Leopard sisters were in the middle of a fight with the other male Snow Leopard. Po was about to get a rope to tie up Jian, but suddenly he felt another mass of energy form next to the Lion, Jian was creating another energy attack. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Po said as he turned around and threatened to harm the Lion again. But this time, Jian smiled and said "this isn't meant for you, Panda!" As he said this, Jian fired the ball of energy at the ceiling where there were many stalactites hanging downward from the ceiling. The blast hit a large stalactite on the ceiling and the rock formation began to crumble as the blast had destroyed it's connection with the ceiling, but when the rock began to fall, Po noticed that it wasn't falling towards him, it was falling towards Tai Lung…

Tai Lung was in the middle of fighting all three of the Wu Sisters at once and he too was winning with ease, although he was struggling a little bit more than Po was, however this was overshadowed by the fact that the Wu Sisters were some of the greatest criminals in all of the country. "Give up yet?" Tai Lung said with his arms crossed looking at the 3 female Snow Leopards who were catching their breath after their fight with him. Su just hissed and replied "we'll find a way to defeat you...You get distracted easily..." This irritated Tai Lung as he remembered how easily Su had distracted him the last time. "Not this time kitty, I won't be so easily beaten..." But just as Tai Lung said this, he heard a loud 'Crack!' directly above his head and he looked up and saw that a large rock was falling right for him, he closed his eyes just before the massive rock hit. But just before the giant rock hit him, he felt himself get pushed from the back and he fell to the ground.

" **SMASH!"**

But when Tai Lung opened his eyes again, he hadn't felt the rock land on him, he turned around and saw the crumpled remains of the massive rock in a pile right beside him. However when he looked at the bottom of the pile of rocks, all he saw was Po's jade staff lying just outside of the pile...

"NOOOO!" Tai Lung yelled as he realized what had happened. The Panda had pushed him out of the way of the falling rocks, but in the process, Po had sacrificed himself. Tai Lung the ran over to the rocks and began to lift some of them off the Panda's arm, but it was no use, Po was completely buried underneath all the debris. And not only that, but his hand wasn't moving, and therefor it was very likely that the Panda had been completely crushed…

Just then, the Wu Sisters took the opportunity to knock Tai Lung out together while he mourned over the Panda's death. They each delivered a powerful kick to his head, each of which hit their target and managed to incapacitate the male Snow Leopard. Just then, laughter was heard in the room and the Wu Sisters each looked over and saw a battered Jian approaching and laughing in an evil way. "I never expected that you could be so naive Panda! Nonetheless, your sacrifice has amounted to nothing!" Jian mocked the presumed dead Panda as he looked upon the rock pile while approaching the debris. The Wu Sisters stood in shock, sure they were criminals, but they had never gone as far as to kill someone, yet their boss was acting as if he was mocking the dead Dragon Warrior. "We didn't sign on for this Sister..." Wan whispered to Su as they saw Jian approaching with an evil grin on his face as he looked down upon the crushed Panda. "Alright Jian, we got what you wanted, now it's time for you to pay up..." Su said as her and her Sisters now got up with their arms crossed. "Oh I'm afraid not...For I have another job for all of you." Jian said now looking at the three sisters with a devilish grin. "We're listening..." Su responded as Jian looked upon them. "Your next assignment is to go to the north border of China and scout out a weakness in the defenses of the imperial army. Once you find a weakness, you will all report to me, I suggest that you get going now..." Jian finished with a hint of treachery. Su and her Sisters each looked at each other and then Su responded "and what's in it for us?..." Jian smiled evilly and he replied "help me, and you will all be able to rule over all of China!" This gave the sisters a smile as their ambition had always been to rule the country. But then Su realized something and then she looked back and noticed that Tai Lung still lay on the floor unconscious from when they had knocked him out. "What should we do with him?" Su asked the Lion who was now getting ready to leave through the front entrance. "He is of no concern to me, you may do with him as you please..." And with that, Jian went back out the front entrance and left the sisters to themselves. "What are we going to do with him Sister? If he wakes up, he will surely try to stop us again..." Wing asked Su as they looked back at the unconscious male Snow Leopard. "Lock him up in the dungeon, and make sure he's well restrained...I'm sure we all remember that time when he broke his chains and escaped Chor Ghom Prison..." Her sisters nodded at their older sister's request and they did as they were told. Su followed her sisters down to the dungeons in their fortress and couldn't help but feel a slight amount of guilt, and not for the fact that they had knocked down Tai Lung, but rather because he had to witness one of his friends die right in front of him. As she watched her sisters drag Tai Lung's heavy body through the halls towards the dungeons of their fortress, she saw how the male Leopard's arm muscles looked very strong, as was the rest of his body.

In her subconscious, Su's mind had several thoughts 'lock him up! You know if he gets the chance he'll just put you and your sisters back behind bars! You don't even care about him anyway!' The bad part of her mind told her as she walked along with her Sisters. But then the good part of her mind piped up 'How can you do this to him!? He just lost one of his friends right in front of him! Plus you love him!' Then the bad part of her mind retaliated and told her 'you never said you love him! You just flirted with him to get him distracted! Lock him up!' The good side then spoke again 'of course you love him! I mean just look at him! He's the most handsome man you've ever seen, not to mention he is very strong...' As Su listened to her thoughts she got frustrated, she couldn't decide whether to side with her bad side, or her good side. But as they reached the prison cell which they were going to lock Tai Lung up in, she noticed that her sisters were about to place each of his limbs in strong steel shackles. "Stop." She said as they were about to lock the shackles. "What? Why sister?" As Wing and Wan looked over at their older sister. "that won't be necessary, he has already dealt with enough torment, just lock the door. He probably won't be able to escape anyway..." Wing and Wan just looked at each other and Wan interjected "but sister I thought you said 'make sure he is well restrained'-" "I know what I said Wan, just trust me and leave him unrestrained..." Wan and Wing once again looked at each other and shrugged. "Okay sister...If you say so..." And so Wan and Wing left the cell without restraining the male Leopard and they joined their Sister who closed and locked the steel bar door behind them. "Sisters, go to the entrance of the fortress and wait for me, we will go to the northern border once I join you." Wan and Wing both bowed to their older sister and headed on their way to the entrance of the Wu Fortress. Once her sisters had left, Su knelt down and felt Tai Lung's paw as the male Snow Leopard was lying down on the floor of the cell still unconscious from the massive blow to his head. His paw was still warm as it radiated with body heat, for some reason the feeling of the male Leopard's warmth made Su purr. But she quickly caught herself doing ths and she slapped herself across the face to straighten herself up. 'Get a hold of yourself Su! You have a job to do!' She thought as she now let go of Tai Lung's paw and said "Just stay right where you are handsome, I will return soon..." And then she left to go join her sisters leaving Tai Lung all alone in the dungeon.

 **Meanwhile Back in the Meeting Room of the Fortress…**

The air was quiet in the meeting room of the Wu Sister's Fortress, all that could be heard was the lava flowing on the sides of the rock walls. The room had been left exactly as it was before the Wu Sisters and Jian had left for nearly half an hour, however now there was a slight disturbance in the large rock pile in the center of the room. A slight rumbling sound could be heard from the pile of rocks and small pebbles and stones from the pile began to shake and fall deeper into the pile. Just then, one of the larger stones that lay near the bottom of the pile was pushed up and out of the pile and as the stone fell out of the pile, a black paw emerged from the pile. It was Po, he was somehow still alive and was attempting to free himself by pushing the heavy rocks off of him. Just then, two more large rocks were pushed off of the Panda and he now crawled out from underneath the pile. He had to use his hand to pull himself out of the rock pile as he couldn't feel his right foot, and as he dragged himself out of the massive pile of rocks Po began to breath again as the pile of rocks had greatly deprived him of oxygen, not to mention he was inside a volcano right now. He was now safely outside of the rock pile, but he noticed that he still could not feel his back paws and also that he couldn't move his left arm. He then began to feel very sharp pain in his abdomen, he turned around on his back with his hand that worked and saw that a sharp piece of stone had impaled him in his abdomen. He then found that he was having a difficult time just breathing and also that he couldn't move his jaw properly. 'Just great...Scratches everywhere, bruises everywhere, broken foot, dislocated jaw and arm, collapsed lung and not to mention, impaled kidney...' Po thought sarcastically as he lied down in pain. But then he remembered something that he had learned recently. Though Po was able to use his Chi to heal others from their injuries, he could not use this ability to heal his own injuries. However he had learned that he could use his Chi to augment certain physical attributes in his body, the strength in his muscles and the reaction time in his mind to name a few. However he had recently learned that he could also use his Chi to manipulate how quickly the cells in his body performed mitosis. (Mitosis is cellular division in living organisms, and is the means of which the body heals wounds and grows.) This ability would allow him to recover from wounds much quicker than before, almost giving him a healing factor as his wounds could be repaired in mere minutes as opposed to days or perhaps weeks. Sure it couldn't replaced and repair entire organs, but it could help him patch up flesh wounds to his skin and also help to repair broken bones. So Po got up to a sitting position using his right hand and began to pull on the stone spike which had impaled his left kidney. The pain of pulling the spike out was excruciating but he powered through it in his determination. As he pulled the spike out of his body, blood began to flow out of the hole in his abdomen and he immediately focused his Chi into the cells in his body. And sure enough, within minutes he began to notice that the wound was slowly closing up and the cells in his body were quickly dividing to fix the wound. 'Good thing I've got two of those...' Po thought as he knew that his left kidney could not be fully healed. Then he realized that as his wound was quickly healing, his breathing rate was returning to normal, it was mostly as a result of his cells also repairing the damage to his chest cavity. He then directed his focus onto his broken right leg, so he straightened the two snapped parts in his leg and began to focus his Chi to repair and reattach the bone fibers in his lower shin. Once the bones began to heal themselves, he felt that his jaw wasn't in place and he was unable to move his mandible properly. 'This is gonna hurt...' Po thought to himself as he used his right hand to grasp his jaw. He then applied a lot of force trying to push his jaw back in place.

" **Crack"**

The jaw bone made when it slid into place, and the second it did, Po roared out in pain as the action had successfully reattached his jaw but had hurt a lot in the process. Once Po had gotten over the pain after several minutes, he noticed that both the wound inside his abdomen and the broken bones in his leg had been repaired completely. So he lastly looked at his left arm which was dislocated at the elbow, he then thought to himself 'this is gonna hurt even more...'

" **Crack"**

Po again roared out in pain but this time even louder as te pain was even more severe from having reattached his upper arm to lower arm. But despite this, he got over the pain eventually and then realized that all of the effort he had made to heal himself had exhausted him and his Chi. And so the tired Panda fell to the floor and thought to himself 'damnit Tai...I told you we would take them quietly...'

 **A/N: Chapter 3 done! I plan to make at least another 3 chapters for this story so stay tuned for those coming soon! Favorite, Follow and**

 **Review!**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Mistrust

In a dark, damp and gloomy prison cell in a dungeon near the core of Hubei Volcano lay an unconscious Snow Leopard. He had been knocked out for god knows how long and at the moment he lay motionless on the floor of the stone floor which wasn't as uncomfortable as it looked, for the heat of the volcano's core radiated through the cell effectively warming the floor and everything within the cell. The only thing taking place in the cell was the thoughts that dwelt within the Snow Leopard's mind, for in his mind an entire scene was unfolding before him.

"I just killed the Dragon Warrior..." He said to himself as he looked down upon the large rock pile with the Dragon Warrior's jade staff just outside of the clutter. "The one person who gave me a second chance...The one person who believed in me..." He didn't even know what to think of himself right now, some of the words he would use to describe his feelings towards himself right now would include disgust, incompetence and a let down. He mostly felt this way because he felt responsible for the demise of the Panda, of course he wasn't directly the reason for the Panda having been crushed by the rocks, but he felt incredibly guilty that the Panda had to save him from his lack of awareness. He had once again been too focused on Su that he had completely tuned out his surroundings making him vulnerable to a surprise attack, this was indeed a sloppy mistake for him, and what's more it was the second time it had happened to him in just two days. As he looked upon the rock pile in angst, his mood changed to that of anger, he had let himself be fooled for the last time. "Su is going to pay for this, as is that pathetic fool Jian! I promise I will avenge you Dragon Warrior, if it's the last thing I do!"

At that moment, his eyelids opened revealing two golden eyes which illuminated the area with their faint glow. He looked around and saw that he was surrounded on three sides by thick stone walls and on the other by metal bars. 'A prison cell? Does she know nothing about me?' He thought to himself in humor as he looked at the Iron prison bars while cracking his knuckles. "This will be easy..." He said to himself with a smug grin on his face while observing his surroundings for a possible way to escape the tight confines of the cell. And sure enough, when he looked at the back wall of the cell he saw a pair of steel shackles which were attached to the wall, "Bingo." He said to himself as he was already developing a plan to escape.

 **30 Minutes Later**

After half an hour of preparation, Tai Lung was getting ready to execute his escape plan of escaping the prison cell. He had since pulled the steel shackles straight out of the wall and had cuffed them to the iron bar door which was locked. He had then attached the pair of cuffs to each other, he planned to pull the hinges of the door clean off by using the attached handcuffs as some sort of cable which would give him better leverage. So he grabbed the chains attaching the two cuffs together with his arms and pressed his legs against the iron bars on the edge of the doorway almost standing horizontally on them to give him the most possible power. Once he had himself in place, Tai Lung began to pull with as much strength as he had, and after multiple seconds of continues effort he began to feel the hinges of the cell door weakening and coming loose. After almost 10 seconds of non stop struggle by Tai Lung, the iron bar door's hinges snapped clean off effectively freeing him. However what he had not prepared for was when he pulled the door out of its place, it fell backward and was about to fall on him and crush him. 'Son of a Bit-' He though just before the heavy door fell on top of him.

This was just another clumsy mistake that he had made these past few days, and after the door had fallen on him he lifted it off of himself and in his anger, he threw it to the side where it hit one of the stone walls of the cell. This made quite a ruckus and he thought to himself 'you have to be quiet, If someone heard that then you might be in trouble...' So he began to make his way out of the dungeons of the Wu Fortress as stealthily as he could. However, what he did not now was that at this moment the Wu Sisters weren't even at the Fortress right now…

 **Meanwhile at the Northern Border of China…**

"Sister, there is nothing here but an endless desert! We're wasting our time!" Wan said as the three female Snow Leopards traversed along the charted land which marked the border between China and Mongolia. They had only recently arrived here after the very long trip from their Fortress in southern China, but already they were realizing how futile this whole excursion was. "I know this may seem pointless to you Wan, but Jian demanded that we do this, if we succeed the reward will be well worth it!" Su replied to her Sister who followed closely behind at the same pace as they kept patrolling the boarder. "I don't know sister, this whole situation seems very skeptical, I mean how do we even know if we can trust Jian? We got him the artifacts he requested and yet he gave us nothing, who's to say he won't swindle us again?" Wing added logistically. Su thought about this, she had to admit that her sister had a point, although Jian wasn't completely untrustworthy in her eyes. "Sisters, you must realize that it was Jian who helped us after our escape from Chor Ghom Prison, we owe him our service..." But her sisters were quick to refute as Wan replied "That may be so Sister, but we have already done several difficult jobs for him and he has rewarded nothing for either. And why does he want us to scout the border?" Su was deep in though pondering what her sisters were notifying, it was true, Su didn't know why Jian had sent her and her sisters to this inhospitable place to scout for the imperial army's forces.

As they kept on going through the expansive and seemingly endless desert, the three sisters noticed that up ahead was what looked to be a forest of some kind. "Well its about damn time! Here I thought this sand sea was never going to end!" Wan said in relief as it meant that they would get to get out of the desert and into a more wooded area out of the cold of the night. One thing that the sisters now knew about this expansive desert was that it was very treacherous, being scorching hot during the day and ice cold during the night. So they made their way towards the forest on the horizon, it seemed far but at this point the sisters would do anything to get out of the harsh climate in the desert.

On their way towards the forest on the horizon, Su felt distraught. Her mind was a complete mess right now with a swirl of thoughts going in and out of her mind, with her sisters concerns being one. But another thing she was focusing on at the present was the male Snow Leopard she had left alone inside the cell in the dungeons of their fortress. Although they were basically enemies in just about every way with him being a redeemed fighter for justice and her being a notorious criminal, she still felt some sort of connection between him and herself. Of course there was the side of her that wanted nothing to do with him as he was consistently a setback in her plans being associated with the Dragon Warrior who was sworn to bring to justice criminals like herself. As she pondered over these inner thoughts she heard one of her sisters speak again, "Sisters, it just occurred to me that we never did check to make sure the Dragon Warrior was dead..." It was Wing who followed closely behind. "Are you kidding sister? Nobody could have survived that! And plus we even saw his staff outside of the pile! Although this is the dragon warrior we're talking about..." Wan tried to argue before realizing that they were talking about one of the most powerful Kung Fu Masters in all of China. Su then responded to her Sisters, "look Sisters, I have heard your concerns and I too agree with many of your points however we're on a mission right now. We're now nearing the end of the boarder, once we reach the end of the border we'll meet with Jian and report to him. Once we do that, we will finally have control of China!"

 **Meanwhile in the Dungeons of Wu Fortress**

"Why is this place so quiet? I thought the Wu Sisters would still be here, but they seem to have gone..." A lonely Snow Leopard said to himself as he navigated his way through the corridors of the dungeons of the expansive Fortress. He had been roaming the Fortress for nearly half an hour and had found no sign of anyone the entire time, it was almost as if they had completely vanished. But just as he was finding his way back towards the large room where he and Po had fought the Wu Sisters, he heard a sound which sounded like a whisper of some kind. "Who's there!?" He yelled out trying to figure out where this voice was coming from. "Psst!" He heard someone make the same sound again, only this time it sounded closer. "Show yourself! Now!" He yelled again, now getting into a defensive stance preparing for a possible ambush. But no ambush ever came, instead a figure dropped down from the ceiling and landed right in front of him. "It can't be...Po!?" Tai Lung questioned in complete disbelief looking upon the figure of the Panda who he had thought was dead. "I know, you missed me didn't you?" The Panda said with a bit of a laugh with his arms crossed. As Tai Lung starred at the Dragon Warrior with his jaw open still in complete disbelief he asked "but how!? I saw you get crushed right in front of me!" Po nodded but replied "you really think that little rock pile could have killed me? I'm almost insulted..." Tai Lung upon taking a good look at the Panda noticed that Po's white fur was quite dirty most likely from the dust, and also the Panda's clothing was a complete wreck with rips and bloodstains all over, along with a large hole in the Panda's green tunic right in the middle of the once elegant green tunic.

"I know, I look terrible don't I?" The Panda said while laughing at himself knowing full well that he looked like a complete wreck. Tai Lung then replied with a question, "I still don't understand how you could have survived that..." Po laughed once again and he responded "I'll tell you later, for now we have to find Jian and stop him once and for all." Tai Lung then questioned Po again, "what about the Wu Sisters?" Po shook his head and he replied, "the Wu Sisters are just pawns in Jian's scheme, he is just using them to get what he wants! We have to stop him before he-" "What do you mean 'they are just pawns' Dragon Warrior? How do you know what Jian's plan is?" Tai Lung interrupted. Po cleared his throat and continued, "I was just about to tell you before you interrupted me, While I was buried beneath that pile of rocks, I overheard Jian ordering the Wu Sisters to go to the northern Chinese border and find a weak point in the imperial army's defenses. Do you know what this means?" Tai Lung shook his head and Po then continued "Tai, Jian is an Asiatic Lion from Mongolia, this explains how the Wu Sisters escaped from the imperial army-" "But that doesn't explain his plan! And how do you know he is from Mongolia?" Tai Lung once again interrupted the Panda not knowing where he was going with this. "I was getting to that before you interrupted me again...Anyway, the way I know that Jian is from Mongolia is the clothing that he wears and the way he fights, his clothing is not of Chinese design and his fighting style is rather poor and undisciplined, quite the opposite of Kung Fu. I suspect the Jian has some sort of army or paramilitary force in Mongolia that he plans to use to invade China! That's why he want's the Wu Sisters to scout a weak point in the imperial army's defenses!" This made a lot of sense to Tai Lung and he responded "wow, that actually makes a lot of sense Dragon Warrior..." To which Po responded, "of course it does, now come on! We have to get to Jian before the Wu Sisters return!" So the two Warriors made their way back to the meeting room at the core of the Fortress where they had last seen the Lion.

Once they arrived at the room, they noticed that it was still empty with neither the Wu Sisters having arrived back nor Jian still being there. They walked into the room and they once again and saw that the rock pile which Po had been buried underneath. "I still want to know how you survived being crushed by that pile of rocks..." Tai Lung said as the two walked closer to the center of the room. Po just laughed and replied "I told you, in time. For now we have to find a clue as to where Jian went, I have a feeling that there will be some sort of clue within this room." Tai Lung rolled his eyes and he said "alright then, but what makes you think that Jian will have left this place? Wouldn't he stay here and wait to for the Wu Sisters to return and report back to him?" "That's a good idea and it makes sense, but just before I met up with you I searched around the entire Fortress for him and could not find him. I suspect that he has left, although where I do not know. That's why we need to find a way to track him." Po replied logically to the Snow Leopard while looking around the room for a possible clue as to the Lion's whereabouts.

After nearly ten minutes of searching around the room for clues, Tai Lung eventually stumbled across something that could be a possible lead. "Hey Po, come over here." He called to the Panda who was at the other side of the room. "What is it Tai?" Po asked walking up to the Leopard. "This is a piece of Jian's hair from his mane, using this we should be able to track his scent and follow him wherever he went to." Po smiled as he replied "nice going Tai, alright, you lead the way." And so the two Masters went on their way, following Jian's scent as their guide which would lead them to their objective. But what they didn't know was that their target was far from close by.

 **Meanwhile at the northern border between China & Mongolia**

"So this is where the imperial army is stationed, we're lucky we weren't caught during our escape from that prison..." Su Wu said as her and her three siblings hid in the underbrush right next to a military camp of the imperial Chinese army. There were many torch lit areas with tents and wooden log walls surrounding the camp with Rhino soldiers patrolling the perimeter each holding a torch themselves. The soldiers however were completely unaware that they were being watched closely by 5 prying eyes nearby. The Wu Sisters had found the military camp upon entering a forest just outside of the expansive desert which they had traversed. Now while they watched the camp from the bushes beside one of the log walls, they counted the rough number of troops stationed at the large camp, in total there were approximately 500 troops from the lights of Rhinos and Gorillas to other large mammals. "Jian will be pleased to hear this news, we must report to him straight away." Su concluded as she left the bushes walking away from the camp with her sisters following in suite.

After walking back to the military camp, the three sisters were on their way back to their Fortress to report back to their employer when they heard a faint sound behind them. It sounded like some sort of buzzing sound as if something was glowing or shinning just behind them. And as if it were a complete coincidence, when they turned around to see what the sound was, all they saw was a Male Asiatic Lion who wore a black robe and slacks with it's arms crossed looking Su right in the eyes. "Jian!? But how-" "-Did I know you were here? I thought you would have known the answer, I followed you the entire way. And I must say I'm impressed with how well you did your job Su." The Asiatic interrupted the Snow Leopardess with a grin forming on his face and his arms still crossed. The three sisters now looked upon the Lion and noticed where the buzzing sound was coming from, the three artifacts which they had stolen for him were being worn by him and were glowing in the colors of which they represented. (Red for the ruby bracelet, blue for the sapphire bracelet and orange for the medallion)

"But why did you follow us this whole way? Surely it would have been easier for you to wait back at our Fortress for us to return-" "Su, you know that I couldn't really trust you to come back could I?" Jian interrupted the Snow Leopardess once again as he took a step closer to the three siblings. Su was not happy with the Lion's explanation however, she felt violated and betrayed, "What!? What did you just say!?" She said with a small growl. Jian laughed at the Leopardess' reaction and he replied "Oh common Su, put yourself in my place, could you really trust a prison convict with a large criminal record?" Su still was not appeased by the Lion's disrespect towards her and her sisters, she then unsheathed her claws and she said with a more intimidating tone "I expect that you hold up your end of the bargain Jian, or else..." At this Jian once again laughed but this time in a sarcastic way as he tilted his head down to look at the now aggravated Snow Leopardess and he replied "you're terribly naive my dear, did you really think that by helping me I would make you the rulers of the country that I am going to invade!?"

Upon hearing this, the three female felines looked at the Lion with absolute disbelief, "Wait...Invade!? What do you mean!?" Jian kept up his laughter at the Leopardess' ignorance towards his plans and he answered "I mean, the Mongols will invade this country and this land will be ours once and for all! You don't seriously think that I would share it with a couple of low life's do you!?" At this Su and her sisters unsheathed their claws and hissed with Su saying rebeliously "this was never part of the deal Jian...We won't give you any information while we live!" But Jian was not worried at the slightest by their defensive attitudes and he stood firm responding to her threats, "you don't seriously think you can beat me do you Su? Now surrender and I might let you live..." Su was now aggravated even more by Jian's cocky attitude so she yelled "we'll see about that Jian...Sisters!" And at this, Su, Wan and Wing all joined their tails to perform their signature attack. But just before they could, they noticed three cloaked feline-like figures jumped out of the bushes right behind Jian and stood just behind him each in fighting stances simply staring down the three sisters. "Stand sown! They're mine!" Jian ordered them and they obeyed stepping back away from the Lion.

Jian then cracked his knuckles and with a bit of a chuckle he said "alright, since this will be the last fight you ever do, please make it interesting for me will you?" And at this, the Wu Sisters charged at the Asiatic Lion each with great ferocity and speed. However, Jian reacted quickly and jumped directly upward which the Sisters had not expected, being unable to slow themselves down they bumped into each other making for a heap of Snow Leopardess' on the ground. Jian landed on the ground gracefully and he mockingly said "you'll have to do better than that my dear..." Su was now enraged and her and her Sisters then joined their tail together and prepared to perform their signature attack on the arrogant Lion. "Give up now Su, or you will regret this..." But Su did not take the Lion's warning and instead she replied practically yelling in anger "never! We will never surrender to the lights of you!" They then performed their attack and began spinning at supersonic speeds making a spiral of red and white which lit up the dark forest. Jian simply sighed and he said "very well then..." He then summoned the power of the three artifacts that he wore and gathered a mass of energy in the palms of his hands. As the Sisters quickly approached him, Jian sent the mass of energy flying at the felines which resulted in a shock wave which sent the sisters flying and landing on the ground almost unconscious. "Apprehend them!" Jian ordered the three cloaked figures, to which they obeyed and put a pair of acupuncture cufs on each one of the sisters hands. "You coward! How can you do this Jian! We fulfilled our part of the bargain! Do you just intend to be the most dishonorable person!?" Su snarkily said as she came to her senses after the harsh blow. "Dishonorable? That's rich coming from a notorious criminal..." Jian replied with a hint of sarcasm. The Sisters just growled at the Asiatic Lion and he continued "you know, I never planned on fighting you three, however your ambitions just so happened to conflict with my own so I'm afraid I have to do this..." And with that Jian sent his three personal guards off with the apprehended Sisters on their way.

"I know you're still alive Dragon Warrior...When you return I will have the leverage I need to make you bow to my knees..." Jian said to himself with an evil grin taking over his face.

 **A/N: Chapter 4 is done! Thanks for being so patient! I will upload another chapter within the next week! As always, to stay updated on this story or any of my others, you can favorite or follow them. And let me know your thoughts and feedback on this story by leaving a Review!**

 **Thanks**

 **-Ace_Risk**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Damsel in Distress

Tai Lung and Po had been following the trail of scent that Jian had left for nearly a day now and they had just gotten out of desert while still following the Lion's scent. "I don't get it, why doesn't he just attack through this desert? The army has no defensive parameters stationed here..." Tai Lung asked while the two kept up pursuit of the trace of their enemy. "Probably because of how inhospitable this place is, I mean could you imagine marching an army straight through an expansive desert? For one, your troops would become weary and dehydrated. For two, it would be easy for the imperial army to spot an approaching army which is completely open in a desert rather than, say a forest..." This was very logical, it wouldn't have made sense for an army to attack China from the desert as it was far too inconvenient for whatever military force Jian possessed.

The two kept on their way until they reached a forest at the edge of the desert, "the trail leads towards that forest, hurry!" Tai Lung said as they began to pick up the pace while following the scent towards the forest. When the entered the forest, Tai Lung began to get confused as he now began to sense that Jian's scent lead in many different directions. "Something's wrong..." He said with a voice of worry now looking around in all directions. "What's wrong? Have you lost the scent?" Po replied now also feeling slightly worried. "No, I still have it, but it has branched off in multiple directions, I don't know what happened here but he must have had some sort of commotion..." Tai Lung responded as he followed the scent to a clearing in the forest. It was then that the Snow Leopard and the Panda noticed skid marks in the dirt as well as broken branches on some of the trees and also some torn clothing on one of the trees. There had been a great struggle here. "What do you think happened here?" Tai Lung asked the Panda who was also scanning the area for clues as to what had happened, "I think that someone or some people tried to stand in his way..." The Panda replied hypothetically. "But I don't see any bodies, and there isn't any blood..." Tai Lung tried to challenge the Panda's statement, to which Po ignored and continued as he looked at the torn clothing, "is there anyone you know that wears or wore a gray robe with red trim?" Tai Lung raised an eyebrow at the Panda's question and he replied, "not that I recall...Wait, there is someone that wears that color, why do you ask?" Po seemed unhappy to tell the Leopard, "well whoever it was, they were likely defeated by Jian and taken with him..."

Upon hearing this Tai Lung let out a small growl, he didn't know why though, it's not like he liked Su, they were enemies after all. "But why would Jian fight someone who he hired!? It doesn't make any sense! And where has he taken her!?" He questioned the Panda sounding agitated and making his hands into a fist in anger. Po noticed this, right from the beginning he had sensed Tai Lung's feelings for the Leopardess, it was why Tai Lung kept making so many mistakes, his feelings for her were clouding his judgment and thus influencing his actions. Po responded to try to answer the unruly Leopard's questions, "I only wish I knew, but we had better find Jian and defeat him once and for all before he has a chance to invade China! Is there any trace of where he has gone?" Tai Lung still remained restless, only he couldn't understand why, so he answered, "no...There are too many scents intertwined in the area, it's impossible to trace Jian's scent properly...We need time to figure out another way..."

It was then that Tai Lung noticed a strange engraving on one of the trees, it definitely wasn't natural. The tree's bark had been peeled away on that spot and there was a message carved into the trees fibers, it read,

 _ **Should you try to stop me, they all die**_

'Damnit, he really does have them as prisoners...' Tai Lung thought to himself as he read the brief statement that the Asiatic Lion had carved into the tree. "Dragon Warrior, come and see this." He called to the Panda who was still looking around for traces on where the Lion could have gone. But he adhered to his friend and walked over and observed the engraving on the tree, "this isn't good, he knows we're coming..." The Panda said out loud as he read the carving and pondering his thoughts. "What do we do now Dragon Warrior, now that we've lost the element of surprise." Tai Lung asked as he looked to the Dragon Warrior for guidance. "There's only one way that we will likely be able to defeat Jian without any blood being spilled. We will have to challenge Jian one warrior to another, It's just a matter of how much honor he possesses." Po said as he stroked his chin looking down at the ground. "Jian doesn't possess honor! From what we know, he always gets someone else to do his own work!" Tai Lung said as he refuted the Panda's idea. "That may be so, but how do you think this army of his would react if they knew that they fought for someone who wouldn't fight for them?" Po said as a smile grew on his face. "They would probably rebel..." Tai Lung thought out loud as he started to understand where the Panda was going with this. "If one of us challenges him in front of his entire army, he will likely be forced to oblige as to keep his honor intact, if he refuses, his entire army will see how much of a coward their leader is." The Panda said with a smile. "That's actually a good idea Dragon Warrior, but we still have one problem, we don't know where he went." Tai Lung replied in a tone of disappointment. But all was not lost, as Po seemed to have found another means of tracking Jian down, for when he looked bellow the carved message he saw another piece of the Lion's mane, another way of following the Lion's scent. "Well, problem solved, I know which way he went." The Panda said as he began walking in the opposite direction that they had come from, using his senses to map out the path in which the lion took. "Wait, how do you know where he went!? Dragon Warrior!" Tai Lung called back to Po who was now well on his way leaving the confused Snow Leopard behind. 'I swear he's so impulsive...' Tai Lung thought to himself as he ran to keep up with the Panda.

 **Meanwhile In a Military Camp Outside of China**

"I really didn't want to do this my dear, but I'm afraid this country only has enough space for one of us to rule." Jian said as he walked down the corridors of the prison block that was built inside his military camp. Right now he followed his guards as they escorted the Wu Sisters to their cell where they would not cause the Lion any trouble in his plans to conquer the country of China. "You won't get away with this Jian! You will never be able to conquer China!" Su retorted as she unwillingly walked along the hallway still cuffed in the arms by the same 8 point acupuncture cuffs as she was earlier. Jian simply laughed this off and he replied, "we shall see about that, my dear..." As he said this, they reached the three cells in which the Wu Sisters would be imprisoned in. "Here you are Su, home sweet home." Jian said with an evil grin across his face. Jian's guards then undid the cuffs and threw each one of the Wu Sisters into their individual cells while also attaching new pairs of shackles to each of their arms which raised the sisters arms over top of their heads, effectively immobilizing them. "You know, this is really quite ironic, for I remember when you first came to me seeking my help you had just escaped from another prison. And now you are my own prisoners." The Lion said as he laughed at his own humor while watching his guards brace the arms of the sisters. Su now looked up at Jian with a face of disgust as she snapped, "we've escaped from prison more times than you can count Jian! This one won't hold us either!" Jian just grinned as he replied to her snarky comments, "I admire your fighting spirit Su, but for your sake, and your sisters you should stow it for now."

Jian then walked into the cell himself and he continued, "plus, I would hate to see the look on that Snow Leopard's face if he finds that you died such a gruesome death for trying to escape...What was his name again? Tai Lung was it? Yes Su...I know how much you care for him..." The Lion taunted the Leopardess which got exactly the reaction he wanted, and she instantly got more defensive and began to growl through her teeth. Jian just chuckled evilly as he kept taunting the Leopardess, "oh? Did I hit a nerve?" Su was managing to restrain herself, but only a little, for some reason she wanted to rip that cocky bastard's face off at the moment, and it wasn't because he had defeated her, or because he planned to invade China. This was different, she felt oddly defensive, much more than she had ever been before, yet she couldn't understand why. But through this, she replied to his rhetoric, "I don't need Tai Lung's help to escape this cell, or to defeat you..." She then spit directly into the Lion's face which he didn't seem to admire too much. The Lion wiped the saliva off of his nose and eye which Su had just spit at him, his guards seemed to get ready to punish the Leopardess for disrespecting their master and one of them said, "should I teach her a lesson Lord Jian?" However, Jian held his arm out to stop them and he ordered, "no, that won't be necessary, now leave us." The guards then bowed and adhered to their master's wishes and left the cell and the prison on his orders. Now that he was alone, Jian got a bit closer to the Leopardess and sighed as he said, "I don't want to have to hurt you my dear..." He then got almost right against her as he continued with a mischievous grin, "but why spoil the fun?"

If Su could throw up in her mouth, she would, but she ignored the Lion's taunts and sick attitude. Jian, much to Su's discomfort did not stop, he continued by saying, "why so quiet now my dear? Are you still thinking that the Snow Leopard will come to your rescue?" At this, Su turned her head away from the Lion as if to say, 'I'm not listening to you.' But Jian wasn't done yet, and he continued by pressing his body up against hers, it wasn't like she could do anything to stop him, she was still braced to the wall and unable to move her arms. And as he did this he could feel her trying to lean her head as far away as she could, probably to distance herself as far away from him as she could. To say she was uncomfortable right now would be an understatement, she had never felt so disgusted in her life, even staying in solitary confinement in her sarcophagus was better than this. Jian was now almost raping her as he forcefully pressed her against the wall of the cell while she all the while tried to resist. He then chuckled evilly as he said in a mischievous tone, "oh come on my dear, why don't you just make this worth my while? It's not like you have anything else to do." He said this as he inched his face right next to her head which was still turned to him, almost whispering directly into her ear. Su wanted so bad to break those shackles and punch the Lion directly in the face, he knew he was getting on her nerves, but he also knew that there was nothing she could do to stop him. Then all of a sudden, he forced his body against hers, putting her straight up against the wall, then he put his mouth against hers and began to kiss her roughly. It wasn't at all a happy kiss, he could tell that Su absolutely hated every moment of the exchange, he even felt her try bite his under lip. At this, he released himself from her and he chuckled as he said, "you humor me Su, here you are locked up in a cell, completely immobilized and helpless, and you still don't give up. Maybe that's why the Snow Leopard likes you so very much..."

But upon saying this, Su completely lost it and she lunged out at the Lion with the intent to bite his face clean off, and she came very close, however he reacted just in time and moved out of the way to avoid her. She still managed to bite into the fur on his mane, and she ripped a decent bit of his mane off right bellow his chin. This infuriated Jian, for almost all male Lions, their mane was one of their most attractive qualities, and it was the same with Jian. He then snapped and he yelled, "you insolent swine! How dare you!" He then brought his right hand up and slapped Su across the right side of her face hard which definitely hurt the Leopardess as it earned him a yelp of pain from her as the impact was quite hard. But Jian still wasn't satisfied, and he took his left paw and slapped her across the left side of her face with the same amount of force as before, this also earning him a cry of pain from the Snow Leopardess as the impact was just as hard as the former. Jian then unsheathed the claws on his right paw and he said in a more intimidating tone, "the only reason I'm not killing you where you stand is because I still need you as leverage. However, should you try to pull another stunt like that again, my finger might just slip..." As he said this, he grazed his claws over the fur on Su's face, obviously attempting to intimidate the Snow Leopardess. She simply stayed quiet and let the Lion ramble on, she still wanted to take out all of her anger on him, however she had lost much of her ferocity that she held earlier. Jian still remained upset though and he continued, "now, I'm going return to my business, and if you know what's good for you, you'll behave yourself!" And with that, Jian left the cell and locked the barred door behind him leaving the three sisters to themselves.

"I'd hate to say we told you so sister..." Wan sarcastically spoke on behalf of her and Wing to Su as Jian had now left the cell block and was out of earshot. "Shut up Wan..." Su replied in guilt as she leaned her head back up against the wall of her prison cell. But while she didn't want to admit to her sisters that she had been wrong about Jian, she knew that she had definitely messed up, they had warned her about Jian but she had been to focused on her goal of domination over China that she had completely ignored the threat. Looking back, she had indeed been naive like Jian had called her, she had completely ignored the real threat which was the Lion's deceptive nature. He had not rewarded them for either of the two arduous tasks that he had demanded of them, of course they had been indebted to him for him harboring them and hiding them from the imperial army. But he had promised them a reward after each and he lied through his teeth both times, now this time she had gotten them locked up in another prison because of her ignorance. 'My ambition is my biggest weakness...' Su thought to herself without a single doubt in her mind. She then thought about a different subject, the male Snow Leopard who she had left inside of that cell inside her fortress back in Hubei Volcano, 'I need you now more than ever before Tai...' She thought to herself as she looked up to the ceiling of the cell, 'Oh who am I kidding, Jian knows that Tai Lung is coming, and Jian is way more powerful then him...' She thought negatively as she then looked back down at the floor of the cell. 'Not only that, but he would probably just lock us up in another cell back in China even if he does rescue us. It's not like he loves me, or ever will, I've deceived and lied to him far to much for him to trust me at all at this point...' Su's thoughts were still as negative as before as she almost scolded herself for her shunned and disliked behavior. Then she thought of another matter concerning the Snow Leopard, 'I wonder if he'll ever feel the same way for me that I feel for him...But how do I feel for him? Do I...Do I love him?'

 **At the Entrance to the Military Camp in Mongolia**

Po and Tai Lung had been traveling for nearly half a day now, using Jian's scent as a form of guide, they had arrived at a large canyon formation. **(This whole setting is inspired by the Karusa Valley from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild)** They were no longer in their home country, they were now into Mongol territory, and the landscape showed it, for as far as they could see they were surrounded by expansive desert and mesa plateaus. It was full of harsh land forms, certainly not a suitable place for anyone to live, however the Mongols had somehow managed to survive in this barren wasteland for generations. The temperature was also getting noticeably colder, of course it was only the beginning of autumn but they were much farther north than before and the climate was adjusting accordingly.

"Stay on guard, this is a perfect place for an ambush..." Po said as he and Tai Lung walked through the pathway that led through the canyon formations. He was right to suggest this, as there were many cliffs and chasms that could be hiding potential attackers, in fact they were now getting very close to where their target was. Po knew this, and so did the Snow Leopard who followed him closely from behind. "So Dragon Warrior, even if we do manage to challenge Jian face to face and defeat him, what makes you think he will keep his word?" Tai Lung asked as the two continued through the canyon passage towards their destination. "I don't think he will, I know he will. If his army values a strong leader then he will keep true to his word and call off his attack on China, otherwise he will look weak in front of his entire base." The Dragon Warrior explained in a factual tone as he still looked up at the clifftops above for potential ambushes. He still had not seen anything suspicious, but he was about to…

As he looked down at the ground of the pathway, Po could see the shadows of the overhanging cliffs above him. But all of a sudden, Po noticed that one of the shadows became slightly larger as three small black dots appeared on the edge of the shadow. Po's eyes grew wide at this and he quickly called to his comrade, "Tai! Take cover!" He then ran to the edge of the pathway beneath the cover of an overhanging cliff with the Snow Leopard following just behind him. Within a single second, a swarm of arrows flew down into where the two warriors were and they embedded into the ground making a patch of arrows which resembled a field of flowers. "Good reaction Dragon Warrior..." Tai Lung remarked as he also watched the arrows stream down from the clifftops above. Po just nodded his head in agreement and replied, "they're on the clifftops, we need to stay out of sight and avoid any traps that may be waiting for us, we'll use the cover of these overhangs to remain hidden." Po stated as he began to move forward while staying right next the massive upward wall of the canyon with the cover of the overhang shielding him from the archers who were perched on the clifftops above.

After over 15 minutes of remaining covert, Po and Tai Lung began to encounter more setbacks that would hinder their journey. Shortly after their encounter with the archers, they started to hear mysterious wind chimes made of hollow wood which dangled from the edges of the overhangs in the canyon formations, when the wind would blow through the canyon passage they could be heard hitting each other making for an uncertain or ominous vibe. Along with the wind chimes, Po and Tai Lung began to notice certain symbols and images carved into the rocks making up the canyons, though none of them were comprehensible as they were most likely of Mongolian origin, though the images depicted many pictures of warfare, savagery and violence, 'I guess this explains why all those scrolls in the palace depict the Mongols as savages...' Po thought as he kept moving on while examining the many carvings on the walls. However, shortly after arriving at the many carvings, the going started to get tougher, the wind began to blow large amounts of sand through the valley which made it much more difficult to see through the thick clouds of sand. But to the warriors relief, the sudden outbursts of wind wouldn't last long, maybe a minute at most, but they were certainly a nuisance.

However, the two warriors were as of yet unaware of an upcoming threat which would quickly reach their destination. A rumbling sound could be heard through the canyon which kept getting louder as it approached the two warriors, "did you hear that?" A confused Snow Leopard asked his comrade as his ears perked up upon hearing the sudden vibration and rumbling sound. "Yeah...It sounds like..." Po responded as he looked farther ahead and noticed something troubling. "Rock slide! Take cover!" Po said as he noticed the numerous massive boulders which were quickly rolling down the slope of the passageway directly towards the two. The two warriors gathered all their strength and made maneuvers to dodge the oncoming rocks without being hit. After the whole ordeal, the rock slide had passed and the two warriors had safely avoided all of the boulders, much adrenaline and energy had been spent and the two sat down beside a wall and caught their breath. And they would need it, for they were now very close to the heart of the military camp…

 **A/N: Chapter 5 done! I really enjoyed writing this one as I was able to use many other references from other media and apply it into this chapter. I plan to finish up this fanfic soon, maybe 3 or 4 more chapters, we'll see. If you've enjoyed reading Mischievous so far then let know by favoriting it or following the story! Also,**

 **Review!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

What's Worth Fighting for?

After the two Warriors recovered from their exertion, they continued on their way up the canyon passage. The incline of the path began to rise as they went further, and though the incline went up, the temperature began to get even colder than it already was. Though neither Warriors showed any signs of weakness towards the cooling weather, their thick fur coats made sure of that, along with their large size and mass. However, they still kept on alert even though it seemed that they had seen the worst of the obstacles, there was more to come…

"Dragon Warrior...Do you get the feeling that we're being followed?" An apprehensive Snow Leopard asked as he looked around while still following the Panda closely. The Panda nodded and he replied, "we probably are, but for the moment I suggest patience." Tai Lung wasn't satisfied with the Dragon Warrior's response, he was never really known for his patience, although he did manage to patiently wait in a maximum security prison for almost 20 years. But that was different, right now he wanted to get this entire endeavor over with quickly. "Okay Dragon Warrior, but I assure you, if I see even a sign of movement, I won't hesitate to take out the poor soul who gets in my way..." Po just shook his head at his comrade's lack of restraint, 'he is older and has more experience than I do, and yet he lacks a fundamental amount of self restraint, it is one of his biggest weaknesses...' The Panda thought as the two continued on through the canyon passage.

However, it soon became clear that the Snow Leopard's instincts about his surroundings were correct, for not far from behind were multiple cloaked figures who slowly followed the two. "Dragon Warrior, I was right...We are being followed..." The Snow Leopard said, expressing his concern to his comrade who still had his back turned to him. "I know..." Po said while sounding worry-free as he and Tai Lung kept walking along the path through the canyons. "Why aren't we doing anything about them!? I could easily take them right now!" The Snow Leopard impatiently ranted as he looked back and saw at least four cloaked figures following at the same pace. Po just replied back, "go ahead, if you want..." Upon hearing this, Tai Lung jumped back and began to engage the four figures with great ferocity and power. The cloaked figures also began to fight back, revealing hidden weapons from their clothing and using them to attempt to kill the intruder. Each one of them had something in common, they were all female felines of some kind, though upon watching Tai Lung combat the four he could tell that these weren't merely lynx' or Leopardess', these were much larger. 'They must be lioness', no other female felines are this large besides Tigress' and they definitely aren't Tigers, I can clearly see their tails don't have stripes.' Po thought to himself as he observed their unorthodox fighting styles while also watching the Leopard's absolute ferocity. But while he studied the combat styles of the Lioness' he sensed that he was being approached from behind, he could feel them rushing towards him with great speed. He then performed a high back flip directly above and within several seconds, he landed on the ground looking directly at the confused cloaked Lioness who had attempted to use a large two handed sword to land a killer blow on the Panda from behind but had failed. Po just chuckled to himself as he watched the confused feline not knowing where the Panda had gone after he jumped to avoid her attack. He thought he would have some fun so he quietly walked directly up to the Lioness' back and he tapped her shoulder with his finger and he said in a mocking voice, "I'm right here." This seemed to startle the feline as her first reaction was to jump while swinging her two handed sword directly at his head. At this, Po reacted swiftly and ducked under the sword strike while thinking, 'gosh that was close...' The feline seemed irritated by his reaction time and continuously attempted to land swing after swing on him, however he wasn't so easily beaten. In a marveling spectacle, Po managed to catch the massive two handed sword just as the Lioness was about to land a killer blow. He then twisted it and managed to bend the metal of the sword to where it didn't even look like a sword anymore. The Lioness was amazed at the enormous strength it must have taken to bend the metal, but before she could do anything else, she was punched directly in the face and knocked out.

As he finished off the female feline, he looked over towards the Snow Leopard who was still fighting against the two remaining Lioness' who fought viciously making it difficult for Tai Lung to defeat them. So Po intervened to even the odds, "need a hand!?" Po called to the Snow Leopard while he fought the two. Tai Lung just simply stated, "shut up and fight!" As he continued to battle the two cloaked figures as the Panda jumped in to assist him.

Within just a few minutes, Tai Lung and Po had prevailed against Jian's personal guards, having defeated nearly 6 of the highly trained Lioness'. "If they are that easy to defeat, then Jian will be a piece of cake." Tai Lung stated as he and Po continued on their way towards their destination up the passage through the canyons. "I wouldn't say that Tai, Jian may not be much more physically inclined or smarter than us, but he still has the power of the Gong Lu Medallion and the Zen Bracelets. Those artifacts alone make him extremely dangerous..." Po stated as he still looked around for possible traps in the area. "Don't fool yourself Dragon Warrior! I looked over multiple times during your fight with him and noticed that you had the complete advantage, consistently landing blows on him! He can't be that tough!" Tai Lung argued sounding almost irritated or as another could put it, jealous. "Maybe so, but that was only because he wore the Zen Bracelets. They have the effects of allowing more self control over the powers of the Medallion, but they also suppress its power to a degree. Now should Jian take those Bracelets off, he would have access to the full potential of the Medallion, it would most likely make him the most powerful being alive, but at the cost of his morality and judgment." The Panda took a moment to pause, seeming as though he were in thought, but then he continued, "however, in the hands of an evil warlord..." "It would make an incredibly powerful person with an already powerful position, he would practically be invincible..." Tai Lung finished the Panda's statement now realizing how serious the situation was. "Exactly, should he take those Bracelets off no one would dare oppose him...Except us." Po stated as they continued up the pathway.

 **Inside a Cave Within a Military Camp**

The setting was dark and ominous, with only the dim light of a couple of torches on the walls of the cave. In the center of the room, laid a large table, and on that table was a map of the Asian continent. Though this map wasn't being used for any form of exploration or geography class, it was being used as a strategy board for a certain Asiatic Lion who at the moment was in the middle of plotting a strategy to defeat the imperial Chinese army and take control of the neighboring country. His plan was made much easier thanks to the reconnaissance that he had done while following the Wu Sisters near the northern border. However, while he wanted a moment of peace to plan the perfect method of invasion, one of his personal guards barged in from the door, "my Lord Jian! We have word that several intruders managed to get past our defenses and have infiltrated our camp!" Jian just sighed and he replied to his guard with a question, "Tell me, was there any information on what the two intruders looked like?" "Well, there was a report that there was a male Snow Leopard accompanied by a strangely athletic Giant Panda..." Jian then began to chuckle in an intimidating way as he said, "It seems that they've arrived, and in record time. Tell our forces to stand down but remain cautious, these outlanders could cause many problems. And also...Release the prisoner and bring her to me..." The guard seemed confused by her master's commands and asked, "which prisoner my Lord? There are three..." "The one eyed one shall do..." He replied while getting up from his seat and cracking his knuckles. "As you wish my Lord." The Lioness replied to her Master as she left Jian and went to adhere to her Master's wishes. "The fools think they can defeat me...I shall make sure their mockery is no more.." Jian said to himself as he placed the Zen Bracelets on his wrists along with the Gong Lu Medallion on his neck which he had kept on the table next to him.

 **Meanwhile at the Entrance to the Military Camp**

Po and Tai Lung had now reached a large metal bar gate at the end of the canyon passage which stood nearly 20 feet high. The passage had no shrunk to only a couple of meters in width and the only way to go onward was through the gates. "This is it..." Po said as he looked around seeing nothing but high cliffs made from stone and the metal gate in the middle of the passage. "Yes, but how do we pass this gate? Surely it is far too strong to simply use brute force...We will have to find a way to open it somehow..." Tai Lung stated as he too looked upon the large gateway curious on how they would continue on with this obvious obstacle blocking their path. But just then, as if a huge dawn of irony and karma hit the world, the gates began to rise like some mechanism was controlling them, making sounds that resembled that of the training dummies that the two used to train against in the training hall back home. Within 5 seconds the two warriors found that their path was once again open, beyond the now open gates was a passageway through a small man-made tunnel. Where the tunnel led, the warriors knew not, however they soon would. Po smiled at the ridiculous amount of irony that had just befallen them, he then patted Tai Lung on the shoulder sarcastically saying, "good job." With this, the Panda began on his way through the gates leaving the dumbstruck Snow Leopard behind with his jaw open. "I...Wait what?" The Leopard asked himself with an arched eyebrow, but he decided not to question this strange occurrence and instead he ran to catch up with the Panda who was now walking through the tunnel.

The two warriors arrived at the end of the tunnel in some kind of clearing, no more canyons, no more gates, and certainly no more of those creepy wind chimes and symbols inscribed on the walls. They seemed to be in some sort of arena, a very large, open and empty arena. The entire area was shaped in the form of a circle, with walls surrounding the entire perimeter of the arena, above these 20 foot tall walls were rows upon rows of stone seats, it was very possible that they had been carved out of stone, they encompassed the entire venue and they rose in incline the farther they got. They also began to look around the walls, and they noticed that like the entrance they had just come from, there were 3 more identical entrances, each in a certain quarter of the arena. 'This must be some sort of training arena where the mongols train their warriors after conscription...' Po thought as he examined the walls of the arena more carefully. However, before the two warriors could do anything more, they heard the large metal gates from which they had entered this large coliseum-like building closed abruptly making a loud, "BANG!" "Not good, we won't be escaping any time soon..." Tai Lung stated as he and Po looked around for the reason for the gates sudden action. Po then began to walk into the center of the massive arena as if he was exploring the area further. The venue was absolutely majestic as the fighting arena probably had a diameter of nearly 300 feet, it took Po nearly a minute to walk to the center of the arena, however when he arrived, he heard a sound off in the distance which sounded like that of a horn being blown. Just then, Po began to hear a rumbling sound and within a couple of seconds he understood what the sound was coming from. For out of the other 3 other gates in the arena came a horde of armored soldiers carrying weapons of many types. From battle axes, swords, spears, clubs, maces and shields, these soldiers were heavily armed. And they were all headed towards Po and Tai Lung who had just arrived by the Panda's side. Tai Lung wasn't one who would scare easily, and this didn't scare him either, however that didn't stop him from worriedly asking the Panda, "I hope you have a backup plan..."

"Don't worry, this is all part of the plan, however I everything goes south, I have a way to get us out of here..." The Panda replied to his unnerved companion as the horde of soldiers began to surround the two warriors on all sides. There were so many soldiers that it would have been impossible for anyone to come up with an exact number, however Po guessed that there were nearly 10,000 individuals composing the circle of soldiers around them. The majority of this army consisted of physically larger animals; Rhinos, Crocodiles, Gorillas, and Lioness' to name a few. However there were many other animals that made this army, Wolverines...Known all across for their incredible combat prowess, Wolverines were extremely dangerous fighters with insane resilience and unnatural strength. Po however was not phased by the threat of this horde of animals which now surrounded him and his companion, he remained calm and looked around at the massive mob who didn't seem like they had the intent on killing the two...Yet…

"Ah...Dragon Warrior! What a surprise! You survived..." The two heard a familiar voice within the mass of soldiers. Then, right on cue the male Asiatic Lion walked directly through the crowd accompanied by 3 other figures. Two of these figures were dressed exactly like the guards they had fought earlier in the canyons, however the last figure was more familiar than the others, it was Su Wu. Po crossed his arms and began to look at the Asiatic Lion who wore different attire from their previous encounter, he now wore a new black robe along with black slacks, however he also now wore a royal red cape, probably to signify his place as leader of the Mongols. "That cape is super tacky Jian...Wait...What happened to your mane?" Po mockingly asked with a smile forming on his face as he could guess what had happened to the Lion's ruined mane under his chin. Just as Po said this however, the soldiers all pointed their weapons towards the two warriors, probably because of Po's obvious disrespect towards their master. Jian however didn't seem to take offense from the Panda's mockery of his appearance and instead smiled in a sarcastic way as he replied, "Well, you see...Someone turned out to be a bit more difficult than I thought..." At this, the Lion looked over at Su who had her mouth wrapped up so that she couldn't speak, as well as having her arms cuffed behind her back. However, something that made Tai Lung irritated was that she had several black bruises on each side of her face, exactly where Jian had hit her earlier. Even though it was impossible to tell her facial expression due to the ropes around her mouth, Po and Tai Lung could tell that she was smirking as her eyes looked devious as if to say, 'that was me.' "So Dragon Warrior, I know that you've come to stop me, but I out number you a thousand to one. So I have an offer for you; Surrender, and I will free the Wu Sisters. But put up a fight and I might just kill you all..."

'Not many options to chose from...' Po sarcastically thought to himself as he looked at the serious expression on the Lion's face. But he also had a trick up his sleeve which he then revealed, "You may outnumber us Jian...However, what if those loyal soldiers knew that they fought for someone who wouldn't fight for them?" Po said as he motioned to all the soldiers surrounding him and Tai Lung. As the Panda said this, the entire mass of soldiers tilted their heads towards their master, almost as if to say to him, 'what are you going to do now?' Jian looked around and saw the uncertain expressions on his warriors faces, 'why are they all looking at me like that?' The Panda then continued, "we didn't come here to rescue the Wu Sisters Jian..." This drew a stare from the male Snow Leopard beside him who didn't seem to thrilled by what the Panda was saying. However Po wasn't done, and he continued, "We came to prevent your army from invading China." Jian then laughed at the Panda's statement and he retorted, "You've got to be kidding Panda! You can't be so foolish as to believe that I would call off my attack on your country when I have the necessary numbers to conquer it successfully!" "Yes, you would be foolish to call off your attack, however that's not what I meant..." Jian was now irritated with the Panda as he felt that the Dragon Warrior was wasting his time. "You know what Dragon Warrior, I may as well have my army kill you right now for disrespecting me..." Jian answered in an aggravated tone while threatening the Panda and the Snow Leopard who stood before him. "You could, but that wouldn't be a very honorable thing to do would it?" Po answered with his arms crossed and maintaining a serious expression on his face, this definitely was not the time for jokes. Jian began to growl through his teeth as he was beginning to get annoyed and frustrated with the Panda who consistently talked back to him. However, the Panda did have a point. If he ordered for his troops to kill the two, it would be a dishonorable act and thus his army would begin to loose faith in him. Not to mention it would make him look like a coward in front of his soldiers, no doubt they would be skeptical of serving a coward. But he knew he was no coward, so he replied to the Panda, "I suppose it wouldn't Dragon Warrior. Very well, should you wish to save your country you will have to fight and defeat me for it. However, should you loose, I will kill you, your companion, and all who stand in my way of conquering China!" Po then let out a smirk, his plan had worked out, Jian had not wanted to be considered a coward by his army and had agreed to fight the Warriors. "Oh, I don't believe you will be fighting me Jian, instead you may battle someone yo haven't fought before. Tai Lung!"

At this Po pointed to his side where the male Snow Leopard stood completely shocked at what the Dragon Warrior was saying. "Dragon Warrior! Have you lost your mind! We both know you would be the better one to fight Jian!" The Snow Leopard whispered into Po's ear as Jian began to laugh at the Panda's announcement. "Trust me Tai, you can defeat him, besides there's another reason why I'm letting him fight you." Po whispered right back to his comrade. Jian then said while laughing aloud, "You can't be serious! The Snow Leopard!?" Tai Lung took offense to this and he began to growl through his teeth while thinking to himself, 'He doubts me...Just wait until I show him what I'm made of...' Jian then continued, "He couldn't even defeat the Wu Sisters! So what chance will he have against me!?" Po then responded on behalf of Tai Lung, "You'd be surprised Jian, of all the opponents I have ever fought, Tai Lung is certainly one of the most formidable." Jian then scoffed this as he replied, "Okay Dragon Warrior, however I wish to change the rules for this battle now. Should you win, I will not invade China and you will also get to go back with the Wu Sisters. But if I win, I will skin you both alive and wear your hides as trophies!" This seemed to satisfy Jian's soldiers as they began to cheer and wave their hands up for his threats towards the two warriors. "I accept your challenge Jian." Tai Lung said as he stepped forward. Po then whispered in the Snow Leopard's ear, "good luck Master Tai Lung." And with this, Po walked forward towards Jian and followed the two guards who kept Su detained as they left the two warriors some space to fight. They retreated into the circle leaving only Tai Lung and his opponent in the circle, Po stood beside Su who was accompanied by the two Lioness guards and he thought to himself, 'come on Tai, I'm counting on you.' He then looked over to the Leopardess who was restrained, and he added to his thought, 'we're counting on you.'

 **A/N: Chapter 6 done! Only two more to go for this story, I will keep trying to post at least one chapter a week, the updates will start to increase now that my college midterms are done. If you like this story so far or want to stay notified on updates, favorite, follow and**

 **Review!**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

High Stakes

The atmosphere of the arena was intense, the air in the setting was quiet and followed by a very faint gust of wind which blew small bits of sand and dust along. In the center of the circle of Mongol soldiers stood two Warriors, one being the Snow Leopard Tai Lung, the other being the male Lion Jian. Both starred one another down, not eyeing anything else, however, their expressions were quite different. With Tai Lung having the look of focus and concentration, while his opponent Jian had more of a cunning and evil expression. This was most likely due to the Lion's pride and arrogance, Jian had thought it to be a foolish decision to make the Snow Leopard fight him, especially with so much on the line, the fate of their country and their lives to name a few things. 'The Dragon Warrior has effectively ruined their chances of defeating me by making that Snow Leopard fight me! There's no way he believes this incompetent fool can beat me, even without the artifacts!' Jian thought confidently as he walked over to the other side while removing the heavy red cape and handing it to one of his personal guards. "So Leopard...The Panda has placed so much weight on your shoulder, but tell me. Do you truly believe you can defeat me?" The Lion scoffed at Tai Lung with a grin on his face as he obviously tried to mock the Snow Leopard. Tai Lung however, did not give the reaction that Jian wanted, instead the Snow Leopard brought his arms up to a defensive pose with a still emotionless face and replied, "I will only ever be known for losing a fight to two people Jian, and you wont be one of them." Tai Lung then shifted his feet into a traditional Kung Fu defensive stance, preparing himself for the fight. Unlike him, Jian wasn't preparing for the fight, he instead was frustrated as his attempts to intimidate the Snow Leopard had failed. 'He has some nerve to say that! I will make him eat his own words! His confidence will be his greatest weakness!' The Lion thought as he now began to prepare for the fight.

All the while, Po was watching and theorizing how the fight would likely play out. 'Tai seems different right now, not just confident, but focused. I hope he keeps this mindset, his victory will depend on it.' Po thought as he carefully watched the two fighters. At his side though, Su had a much different mindset, she unlike the Panda standing next to her had very little confidence that Tai Lung would be able to defeat Jian. Having fought Jian herself, she knew exactly how powerful the Asiatic Lion was with the power of the three artifacts which he wore now, therefor she knew that the Snow Leopard stood no chance against the brute. 'We're doomed...' Su thought as she lowered her head to the point where she looked directly at the ground bellow, almost as if she had lost all hope. "Guards? Before I make a bloody mess of this cocky Snow Leopard, can you see to it that our guest is watching the entire fight? We wouldn't want to deny her the right to watch such a marvelous spectacle!" Jian said sarcastically almost in a shout as he called to his personal guards. And sure enough, several Lioness' each of which were Jian's personal guards forced Su's head up to look towards the two fighters. Su couldn't do anything to stop the two guards from forcing her head up against her will, being tied up saw to that, but this did not change the fact that she didn't want to watch the upcoming fight.

Several minutes passed, as the two fighters focused in and got ready for the epic battle that would ensue in the arena, or as Tai Lung would have referred to it in the past, 'the Legendary Battle!' "Alright Snow Leopard, are you ready to die?" The Lion once again tried to taunt Tai Lung before their battle would commence. "Your move." Tai Lung said with a patient and calm demeanor, obviously having not been affected by the Lion's attempts to intimidate him. "Your funeral Leopard." Jian replied with a hint of murderous intent. And with that, the Lion immediately sprung up and attacked Tai Lung attempting to land multiple powerful hits on the Leopard. Each came very close, however, Tai Lung was not so easily beaten, he managed to block every blow, since dodging was never really his thing. For a Kung Fu Master, Tai Lung had a very offensive style, much like his sister Tigress, he was always either repelling attacks or making attacks of his own. And this is exactly what he was doing now, applying his offense as he stuck back at the Lion with brutally powerful kicks and punches. Each were precise and well timed, complimentary of his combat prowess and his long list of experience in hand to hand combat. Jian seemed to have difficulty at dealing with the onslaught of different attacks which were sent his way, not because he wasn't fast or strong enough, the power of the artifacts granted him the strength and speed advantage automatically. No, this was because the Leopard had something which he didn't, superior dexterity. As Jian tried his best to block and or dodge each attack, they became progressively harder to read, and eventually, Jian's defense broke. Tai Lung now held the advantage, he managed to land two solid hits directly to Jian's face, the first being an uppercut, the second being a round kick which made a loud 'crack' sound as it made contact with the Lion's mandible. Jian was knocked back from the hard impact, and landed on his side while grasping his jaw, 'that piece of filth! He nearly broke my jaw!' Tai Lung smirked at having overpowered the cocky Lion and proving himself in front of Jian's entire army, when Jian made contact with the sandy floor of the arena, his army gasped in disbelief at how their master had just been hit by the Snow Leopard.

"Had enough yet? Or do you wish to continue making a fool of yourself?" Tai Lung asked in a mocking way. "Oh not quite Snow Leopard, you see I made a major mistake in underestimating you, no matter. I will have your skins by the time this is over." Jian said as he got up from the ground and wiping the streaming blood off his mouth. This seemed to bring the energy back to the crowd as they cheered for their Master who seemed like he had just been playing with the Snow Leopard the whole time. Tai Lung got back into his defensive stance while signaling for Jian to come at him. But before anything else, the Lion grabbed the two Zen Bracelets and removed them from his arms. Upon doing this, Jian sported a devilish grin knowing exactly what the outcome would be now that he had complete access to the power of the medallion. 'Uh oh...' Tai Lung thought as he watched a glowing bright red aura surround the Lion courtesy of the Medallion's supernatural energy. He knew he was in trouble, he had read all the scrolls within the jade Palace (excluding Master Oogway's forbidden ones) and there were many that told of the power of the ancient Kung Fu artifacts. Jian had seemed completely normal upon removing the two bracelets, however after a couple of seconds, the cosmic power of the Gong Lu medallion began to consume him as his posture went from upright, to very hunched. He unsheathed his claws and exposed his large and sharp canine teeth as the Lion began to snarl in a violent and aggressive way. As Jian began to snarl like a feral animal, the atmosphere of the fight began to get much more intense, Jian's own soldiers were even shaking in their boots. The Lion was snarling so loudly that he was emitting steam and saliva from his jaws.

"ALRIGHT LEOPARD! ARE YOU READY TO BE TURNED INTO A RUG!?" Jian yelled at Tai Lung with a great amount of ferocity and menace in his tone. Tai Lung remained neutral, not keeping his eyes off the Lion while maintaining a firm stance waiting for his opponent to attack. And he did not have to wait long, because within seconds Tai Lung had to dodge an incoming orb of bright red destructive energy with was heading directly for him. He jumped to the side and rolled to recover which allowed the mass of energy to soar past with forced the crowd of soldiers behind to avoid the blast as well, getting to the sides to dodge the destructive energy. 'Not good, he's pissed off and extremely powerful...' Tai Lung thought, but before his train of thought he was met by a tremendously powerful blow right to the side of his face which launched him back directly towards the crowd. Most of the soldiers in the way of the incoming Snow Leopard stepped to the side to avoid getting hit by him as he soared at them from the impact of the Lion's powerful kick. But his momentum was quickly stopped as Po who had been directly in the way, caught him by the back of the shoulders. Po then put the dazed Leopard back on his feet and said into his ear, "You have to get that Medallion off of him, or you will stand no chance!" Tai Lung rolled his eyes at the Panda's words and he sarcastically replied, "Thanks for the help! Now how the hell am I supposed to do that!?" His voice sounded beaten, as if he was tired, and he was. Po then raised an eyebrow and snapped back, "I don't know!..You're Tai Lung! Figure something out!" Po then pushed the Leopard back into the circle and Tai Lung looked back at the Panda and thought, 'easy for him to say!' "Now look who's making a fool of themselves!" Jian shouted at the Snow Leopard making sure his entire army could hear him. They began cheering for their master who now had the upper hand and was mocking the Snow Leopard. Tai Lung growled from under his teeth and he thought, 'I will get that thing off of your neck Jian...Even if I have to rip it off your corpse!' He then charged at the Lion with a similar stride that the Dragon Warrior had seen before. 'Good thing he's still determined to win, it might save him and us.' Po thought as he recognized how the Leopard ran on all fours towards his foe.

Tai Lung charged at Jian with great ferocity and attempted to pin the Lion to the ground by pouncing on him from above, however this was in vain as Jian managed to avoid the Leopard's attacks due to his reflexes being amplified by the medallion. Jian laughed evilly at the Leopards repeated failed attempts to land a sufficient hit on him, and after the Leopard left himself exposed from over exerting himself in an effort to hit Jian, the Lion made his move and delivered a bone crushing blow right to the Leopard's sternum. The impact once again forced Tai Lung back and onto the ground, though not nearly as far as the first hit. But this time, the pain was much more prevalent. Tai Lung coughed hard as he tried to recover and catch his breath after being hit really hard in the chest. But he couldn't catch a break so easily, for Jian walked up to the Leopard and kicked him in the side of the chest which again knocked Tai Lung over a couple of feet and making him roll to the side. Tai Lung doubled over in pain, he hadn't felt this battered since the Dragon Warrior had launched him in the air and he went through the ground face first. But before he could get up again, he was grabbed by the neck and hoisted up to Jian's eye level where the Lion stared at Tai Lung with a grim look on his face. Tai Lung struggled to free himself from the Lion's strong grasp, but try as he may, his efforts were unsuccessful. "I -Gasp- Suppose you -Gasp- Wouldn't want to -Gasp- Talk this out -Gasp- would you?" Tai Lung struggled to say as the Lion's hands were wrapped around his esophagus and restricting his breathing. Jian didn't seem to find humor in the Leopard's speech and he responded by throwing Tai Lung to the other side of the circle where Tai Lung slid to a halt right next to the soldiers who were watching with great excitement. Tai Lung could hear them shouting and yelling at him in some form of other language, no doubt it was Mongolian. He used his paws to push himself off the ground and get up, but after all the punishment he had just taken it was difficult to do just that. The Leopard managed to get to his feet, but not a second after, the Lion approached him and again grabbed him by the neck. "This will be your end Snow Leopard! Any last words before I take your beating heart from your body!?" The Lion said with saliva dripping down from his fangs with a mass of red mystic energy in his free hand. 'He definitely isn't bluffing...There's only one thing I can think of that will stop him...' Tai Lung thought as he tried to free himself from the Lion's strong grasp on his neck.

Back in the crowd, Su was having a really hard time watching Tai Lung get beaten up like a sand bag and a boxer. She knew right from the start that he didn't stand a chance against the superior Lion, but she couldn't warn him as her mouth was covered. She didn't want to see her Snow Leopard get beaten like this-wait...Her Snow Leopard!? 'Ha! You admitted it! You love him!' Su's subconscious scoffed as it claimed victory. But suddenly, the other side of her subconscious spoke up, 'Oh horse crap! You only want him to win so you and your sisters will be freed! No other reason! Right!?' It argued, with a hint of uncertainty.

Tai Lung try as might, could not break free from the Lion's grasp on his neck. However, he managed to think up a strategy quickly and then he responded, "Two words Jian..." The Lion then began to grin as he knew that the Leopard was about to concede and accept his inevitable fate. However, what the Leopard said next, was not what he was expecting.

"You're nuts."

The Lion raised an eyebrow at the Leopard's strange choice of words before he died. He was expecting the Leopard to say something like, 'You win.' He then began to laugh evilly as he then raised his free arm with the energy of the Medallion coursing through it and prepared to send it right through the Leopard's heart. 'I've got got you right where I want you now!' Tai Lung thought with a hint of mischief. He then took his foot and kicked the Lion right in the crotch where Jian was exposed and vulnerable. The Lion then yipped in pain as any male would after such a painful interaction, he also dropped Tai lung and fell to the ground clutching his groin from the extreme pain. Tai Lung almost laughed as he thought, 'Man, this is reminding me of the other day...' But he knew Jian wouldn't be down for long so he quickly rose and ran up to the Lion and grabbed the medallion and pulled it off the Lion's neck. He then felt a very unstable power in his hand, no doubt due to the medallion being separated from it's user, he knew he couldn't contain the power of the medallion, so he threw it towards Po in the audience. Po smiled at him, and then the Panda took the jade staff from his back and used it to crush the ancient artifact. The medallion cracked upon impact with the staff, however when it was destroyed, it released a large cloud of red mystic energy which rose up into the air and it seemed to evaporate. "Now that that's done..." Tai Lung said with a growing smile on his face. He then looked over to Jian who rose from the ground while still clutching his groin in pain, "You'll pay for that Leopard!" Jian said as he began to recover from earlier. "I think not Jian, without the medallion you are nothing!" Tai Lung said confidently while getting into an offensive stance. Jian looked furious upon hearing this, he then brought his arms up and charged the cocky Snow Leopard. But Tai Lung was right, Jian was nothing without the medallion, the Leopard began to beat up on the Lion with powerfully backed up punches and kicks each of which hurt the Lion every time.

The tides had turned in the other direction with Tai Lung pelting Jian with hits all over with great ferocity and power. Jian tried to fight back, however he was out classed in nearly every category with Tai Lung being a natural and superior fighter. Just then, Tai Lung delivered a crushing uppercut right to the Lion's jaw which launched Jian up and making him fall hard on his back. This effectively incapacitated the Lion, but Tai Lung wasn't done yet. He walked up to the Lion who lay on the ground and stood above him, "Yield!" Tai Lung said as he raised a paw to the Lion. Jian groaned in pain but refused to concede to the 'inferior Snow Leopard'. "Never! I will not be beaten by some worthless runt!" This earned him a hard punch right to his collar bone which made a "Crack!" sound. Jian then roared in pain after feeling his collar bone breaking with the force of the Leopard's punch. "Say it!" Tai Lung said as he once again raised his fist preparing to hit the Lion again.

"Alright! I yield! You and your pathetic country are free from Mongolia!"

Tai Lung smiled in sanctification upon hearing the Lion concede the fight. But there was more that he wanted which the Lion would give to him, "Just me?" He said trying to hint at something. Jian looked for a second like he wasn't going to comply, but when Tai Lung began to raise his paw, he needed no further persuasion, "Alright...You, the Dragon Warrior, AND the Wu Sisters are free..." The Lion said while grasping his broken clavicle in pain. Tai Lung was now fully satisfied as the Lion was abiding by the agreements made before the match. He looked over to see the Panda who also smiled at his achievement as well as the female Snow Leopard who's expression was hard to read as her mouth was still covered, but through this he noticed that she was...Blushing!? He was confused by her strange expression but decided to ignore it for the moment as he then heard Jian say to him, "Now...Be done with it...Kill me." Tai Lung shook his head at this and he replied, "No, you are defeated, there is no need for further violence." Jian then responded sounding to have lost hope, "But I have disgraced my people, and I have disgraced myself."

"No, I will not kill you, I leaned recently from a friend that everyone deserves a second chance."

Just then, Tai Lung heard to voices say, "Where are you taking us! Hey! Answer us!" He then turned his head and saw the other two Wu sisters who looked confused while being detained by two guards. "Sister! You're alive!" They both said in unison upon seeing their Sister alive and well. Tai Lung smiled slightly seeing the sisters reunite, and then he called to the guard who still detained Su, "Release her." The Guard obliged and cut the wrappings on the Leopardess' mouth and also used a key to unlock the cuffs on her back. Su began to stretch her arms as she had been cuffed for nearly two days as well as rub the spots on her cheeks which were bruised due to Jian hitting her. The two shared a quick glance at each other. Though Tai Lung's expression seemed to be satisfied, Su's looked more flirtatious.

Po then walked forward and congratulated the Leopard, "Well done, Master Tai Lung." The Panda said while bowing in respect. "Thank you, Dragon Warrior." He replied as he too bowed respectfully. Po then put his staff on his back and said to Tai Lung, "Now let us leave this place." Tai Lung questioned, "But the exit to the arena is that way Dragon Warrior..." Po replied to the Leopard, "Yes, but we don't need to leave through the main exit." As he said this, Po prepared to perform the Wuxi Finger hold on himself. Tai Lung now understood what the Panda meant and he put his paw on the Dragon Warrior's shoulder preparing for the Panda to perform the technique. Po then looked over to the Wu Sisters who were wondering what the Leopard and Panda were doing and he called to them, "Coming?" They wondered what he was talking about, but it was then that they heard Tai Lung say, "It's okay, you can trust him." Wan and Wing raised their eyebrows thinking if they should really trust two of their biggest nemesis'. But before they could object, Su stated, "Do as he says." The two Sisters looked dumbstruck upon hearing their Sister's words, "But-" "Trust me Sisters." Su said firmly and then she approached the two Warriors. The two Sisters had confused expressions about their faces, but they decided to trust their older Sister as they always did. Po then said, "put you paws on my shoulder." This drew even more confused faces from the Leopardesses but Su reassured them, "Do as he says Sisters." They shrugged their shoulders but did as their Sister told them, so all three Leopardesses placed their Paws on the Panda's shoulder. The Panda then flexed his pinkie finger and immediately, the 5 were surrounded by golden Chi energy which pulsated around them. And then…

 **A/N: Finally done Chapter 7! Sorry for the terrible pun halfway through XD. Only one more chapter to go though! If you have or are enjoying this story so far, then favorite and follow it to receive notifications on updates! And also**

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 **-Ace_Risk**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Thanks for reading all the way to the end! And for all those who either favorited, followed, and reviewed it, thanks tenfold! This will be the last chapter of this story, but don't worry! I will be writing the sequel to Dark-Bright shortly! So stay tuned!**

 **Anyway, on with the final chapter!**

Chapter 8

Parting Ways

Su opened her eyes to see a very vibrant setting, with a shining orange sky. But this wasn't a typical sunset, for the entire sky was the same orange and gold color. Another thing out of the ordinary was the lack of sufficient gravity, for when she went to take a step she began to slowly float up and then fall just as slowly as she elevated. 'What is this place!?' She thought restlessly as she observed the strange land forms in the area, there were multiple high rising peaks which emerged from a shining golden lake of some liquid substance she didn't know. She began to crouch down close to a bank of the mysterious fluid and was about to touch it until her paw was snatched back away from it from someone else.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." A male voice said from behind her. It was Tai Lung, he held her paw in his grasp and pulled her away from the bank. She looked at him with a face that read, 'Why not!?' He smiled and continued, "It's called Chi, it's an energy which resides in all living things." He said, explaining what the golden river was composed of. "That still doesn't explain why I can't touch it! And where even are we!?" She snapped as if she were upset towards the male Snow Leopard. He raised an eyebrow and replied, "Hey, hey, no need for the hostility Su." He then held both of her paws in his own and continued, "We're in a place known as the spirit realm. It is a place where people go when they pass on from the mortal realm. And the reason you should not touch the lake of Chi is to not disturb the calmness and balance of the universe." This drew a very confused look from the Leopardess and she replied, "Whatever you say...I Still don't understand how we got here..."

"We got here because you all trusted in me, and in yourselves." Said a voice from above. Su And Tai Lung looked up to see the figure of the Dragon Warrior slowly descending from above. He then landed directly beside them and he said with a smirk, "Am I interrupting anything?" At this, both Su and Tai looked at each other and noticed that they were holding paws, they then yanked their paws away from one another and looked away from each other blushing heavily. Po laughed at the obvious embarrassment he had caused both the Leopards. Su recovered and snapped, "Dragon Warrior! I demand that you tell me where my sisters are! And why you decided to bring us to this place!" The Panda listened as she ranted on and then once she had finished he replied, "To answer your first question, your Sisters are quite alright, they will arrive here shortly. For your second, I brought us here so that we can return to China without a delay." The Panda then walked ahead of them and towards a structure that looked like a dock, he then pulled his jade staff off of his back and dipped it into the chi river. Su and Tai Lung watched as the Panda began to pull something out of the river, and it was quickly revealed to be a boat of sorts. As he pulled it out of the river, the Chi seeped out of it and it began to float on the golden liquid.

Su was just about to berate the Panda again because her Sisters were nowhere to be seen, but just as she opened her mouth to say something, she heard a faint sound that resembled that of two people shouting from afar. She then looked up and saw two figures falling rapidly from the sky above, it was her two sisters. They were obviously terrified of being so high in the air and they screamed as they were quickly dropping to the ground. "You'd better catch them." Po said while winking at the one eyed Leopardess and referring to her falling sisters. Su took the Panda's advice and ran over to the spot where her sisters were about to land, she then jumped and intercepted their fall by catching them. The three Leopardess' landed on the ground safe and Wan and Wing shook their heads out of their daze, "Ughh what happened? Wait...Where are we? Sister!?" Both Wan and Wing almost exclaimed in unison. Po looked over to the reunited siblings and thought, 'I'll have a lot of explaining to do...'

 **Nearly 1 Hour Later on the Golden Chi River**

The three sisters along with Tai Lung and Po had been riding along the golden river of Chi for nearly an hour now. Po propelled the boat using his jade staff, which he used as an oar similarly to Master Oogway before him. As they traveled along the river of golden liquid, the three sisters had many questions they wanted answered, the first was Su who addressed Tai Lung, "Did you say that this is a place where people go once they've passed on? Does that mean we're dead?" Tai Lung looked towards the Panda who was on the front bow of the boat, to this, Po replied, "Technically yes, right now we are non existent in the mortal realm, and so for all intents and purposes, we are dead." Su looked at the Panda in disbelief and snapped, "What!? You killed us!?" Po laughed from her reaction and replied, "Who said I killed us? It is after all possible to escape the spirit realm and return to the realm of mortals." She then folded her arms and asked, "And how do we do that!?" The Panda looked onward to where he was steering the boat and replied to her, "If one has enough connection to their Chi and also wields an ancient Kung Fu artifact, they can return." He then went back to rowing the boat silently through the river. The next question towards him was Wing who asked, "how exactly do you know where you're going Dragon Warrior?" Po smiled at this and he replied, "Well I'm sure you've all noticed the peach blossom pedals floating in the air? Well I'm using them as my guide, because they all come from one place." "Where exactly?" Wing asked for more clarity. Po smiled and vaguely replied, "You will see..."

 **Not Long After at the Shore of a Small Island**

Po led the boat directly to the shore of a small island in the massive river of golden Chi, the only thing that made this island stand out was the large tree which emitted small pink pedals like the ones the five had seen on their journey. "Here we are." Po said as he let the boat come to a halt at the shoreline. "Here? Where is here?" Su said with a raised eyebrow clearly not understanding where they were. "This is the place where we can return." He replied while getting out of the boat and walking towards the large tree. "Trust me, he knows what he's doing, I spent three years living in this realm after he defeated me. It was only because of him and my former master that I returned." Said Tai Lung to a confused Su as he too left the boat and went onshore. The Wu Sisters simply shrugged their shoulders and followed the Leopard. "So what now Dragon Warrior?" Su asked as her and her sisters approached the Panda from behind. "Simple, you each place your paws on my shoulder again and then I will bring us back to the realm of mortals." Po replied getting right up against the shoreline. "Are you serious? How many times do we have to do this!?" The Wu Sisters each said simultaneously in annoyance. "Just this last time, I promise we will be back after this." He ended as he took his staff in his right arm.

So the three sisters and Tai Lung each placed their paws on the Panda's shoulders and once that was done, he etched in the form of a Yin & Yang in the golden river with his Jade Staff. All of a sudden, the five were encompassed with the pink pedals which rapidly swirled around them. And then…

 **Back in the Valley of Peace on the 1000 Steps Towards the Jade Palace**

"I swear I will kill him when he returns..." A furious individual said with gritted teeth and a very angry expression on their face. As the individual stomped up the stairs in their rage they mumbled, "Because it wasn't bad enough that he lied to me...Then he goes ahead and leaves behind my back...Doesn't even leave a note...And worst of all, he does all this right the day after we get married..." They continued on their way up the stairs whilst growling angrily and clenching their fists. It was Tigress, and she was in about as good of a mood as her behavior would let one believe; not happy. She was just returning from dropping her adoptive son Hao off at Mr Ping's noddle shop where the cub liked to spend most of his time. But this wasn't what infuriated her so, it was the fact that her newly wedded husband Po had left her and Hao along with Tai Lung on some sort of mission he had not notified her of. Now it had been almost 3 days since his leave and she still hadn't heard anything from the Panda.

She was now nearly halfway up the expansive stairway but she stopped when she noticed something strange happening at the top of the stairs where the tournament arena was. "It can't be...Is that..?" She said to herself as she observed the gathering peach pedals forming in a spiraling circle. At the center of the pedals was the golden glow of Chi energy. "I've got to get up there...Fast!" She said to herself, as she began to rush up the stairs.

 **At the Top of the 1000 Steps**

"Ughh...I thought I was done with falling for the day..." Said Wan as her and her sisters got up from their fall to the ground after they had returned to the mortal realm. "But think on the bright side, you're home now." Said another voice, it was Tai Lung, he unlike the three sisters had landed on his feet. The Wu Sisters looked around and Su exclaimed, "This isn't home! This is the Jade Palace!" Po who had also landed on his feet responded, "Hey, at least we're back in the mortal realm." At this, Su walked over to the Panda and slapped him across the face, "Ow! Why!?" He exclaimed in pain as he rubbed the area on his cheek where she just hit him. She crossed her arms and turned her head away from the Panda, she then turned to Tai Lung and addressed him, "Tai Lung, may I have a word?" At this Tai Lung shrugged his shoulders and followed her out of earshot of the others.

"Tai...What you did back there...At the coliseum-" The one eyed Snow Leopardess trailed off while the two were out of earshot from the others. Tai Lung looked her in the eyes and interrupted her, "It's nothing Su, I did what I had to to save China, and to save you." She seemed to feel guilty upon hearing these words, she replied, "I suppose you're going to lock us up now...Well?" She held her paws up in a manner that invited him to restrain her. She then closed her eyes and waited for the male Snow Leopard to restrain her with rope or cuffs of some sort. But instead, she felt the paws of another hold hers. "Why would I do that?" He asked while holding her paws in his. She opened her eyes and questioned, "Why wouldn't you? My sisters and I are notorious criminals, we stole from your Palace, and we nearly led to the destruction of China because of my ignorance. I deserve to be put back in prison." Tai Lung cracked a rare smile and he replied, "I was a notorious criminal when I returned from the spirit realm, but I managed to redeem myself. I know that you could too. Come stay at the Jade Palace with me-" But before the could finish, Tai Lung's lips were met by Su's as she began to kiss him and press her arms against his strong chest. Much like the first time, he again leaned into it as an instinctual urge and desire. She pulled away after nearly half a minute and stated, "That's a very generous offer Tai..."

He looked down at her and smiled again, this time blushing slightly from her displays of affection, but before he could respond…

"POW!"

Suddenly Tai Lung lost all the air in his lungs and fell to the ground in excruciating pain and clutched his crotch where he had just been kicked by Su again. He rolled over from the pain and due to the wind being literally kicked out of him, he faintly cried, "Oww! Why...Do...You..Keep...Doing...That!" Su laughed from the irony of the situation, because only 4 days prior, she had done the exact same thing to him when he least suspected it. She then ran over to where the others stood and said, "Sisters! Let's go!" And with that, the three sisters each ran ahead and scaled one of the walls to the arena. Then Su looked back to the male Snow Leopard who still lay on the floor clutching his crotch in pain. "Sorry love! Once a villain, always a villain!" Su shouted to him while winking at him and blowing a kiss, and with this her and her sisters jumped from the wall to make their escape.

All the while, Po had watched the entire spectacle while folding his arms and shaking his head with a smirk. "And here I thought you were the ballbreaker!" Po joked to the Snow Leopard as he approached him while laughing out loud. "Can't your Chi heal a pair of busted ba-" Tai Lung ranted as he still clutched his area before he was interrupted by Po who finished, "No, it can't. I seriously don't understand how you let her do that to you so easily..." The Panda said while still chuckling at the sight of the mighty warrior defeated with but a simple nut kick. "Well you're a great help! Is there anything else you can do other than ridicule me!?" The Leopard snapped while still in pain. Po smiled and moved on to a different topic, "Do you know why I made you fight Jian instead of me?" Tai Lung began to push himself up to a sitting position after some of the pain had gone away, "Yes, I caught on before the fight started. You made me fight him so that he would get cocky and raise the stakes higher." Tai Lung stated matter of factually. Po nodded his head and replied, "Yes, I had a feeling that Jian would gamble more if he thought his chances of victory were better, sure enough he wagered more than he had to to impress his army." Tai Lung began to smile as he asked, "You knew he would gamble for the freedom of the Wu Sisters didn't you?" Po nodded again and replied, "I counted on it."

Po then offered a helping paw up, to which Tai Lung took it and rose from the ground having conquered his pain. "Thank you Tai Lung, you once again saved the country." Po said as he bowed in respect to the Snow Leopard. But before Tai Lung could reply to this, he saw the Panda suddenly disappear from his sight as a figure tackled the Dragon Warrior to the ground. Po landed on the ground and rolled along with the figure clutching him. Once he came to a halt, he was on his back and he noticed that the figure who now pinned him to the ground was his wife, Tigress. An expression of worry and guilt spread across his face and he immediately thought, 'Uh-Oh...I'm probably going to die now...'

The female Tiger had the expression he was expecting; she did not look happy. "Uh...Hey Tigress...I can explain..." He stuttered as he tried to smoothly crawl out of her grasp. But to his surprise, she didn't stop him, instead she got up and folded her arms while looking down upon him with a face that read, 'Go on...' Po was nervous knowing that he was in a bad situation right now, but he got up and rubbed the back of his head as he said, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about-"

"SMACK!"

The sound of Tigress slapping Po across the face even made Tai Lung cringe. She hadn't even given Po the chance to explain before the began to angrily rant, "How dare you! Right the day after our wedding, you lie to me, and then leave me here alone with Hao without letting anyone know where you were going!?" Po rubbed the area where her and Su had both collectively hit him and he replied, "Look Ti, I would have told you about it, but then you would have wanted to come along! And I know that if you came along, my feelings for you would get in the way of completing the mission. I'm sorry I lied to you..." "Mission? What mission?" She asked without giving him a time to pause. "It's a long story, I'll tell you about it later, for now I have to return these artifacts to the hall of heroes." Po replied whilst taking out the two Zen bracelets which he had recovered and kept in his pack. But before he could go, Tigress grabbed his wrist and said, "Oh no you don't. I haven't seen you in three days and you sure as hell aren't getting away that easy! You're coming with me to the baths since you look absolutely horrid!" Po then accidentally dropped the two Zen Bracelets as Tigress began to drag him by the arm towards the hot springs behind the Palace. Po began to protest, "Wait! Tigress! We have to return the artifacts or Shifu will kill us for sure!" An evil grin formed on Tigress' face and she replied, "You'd be getting what you deserve! Now come on dear husband! You and I have a lot to talk about..." She then proceeded to drag the nervous Panda by his arm off to the baths while he desperately tried to sway her mind. But it was far too late for that…

Tai Lung watched as the restless female Tiger dragged her husband across the ground by his arm unwillingly. He shook his head and thought, 'For being one of the strongest warriors in the world, you sure do have your weaknesses Dragon Warrior...' He then took the two artifacts which the Panda had accidentally dropped and carried them off to the hall of heroes before Shifu would have the chance to notice their absence.

 **2 Hours Later at Dusk** **on the Roof of the Jade Palace**

A lonely Snow Leopard sat on the top of the green shingles of the Jade Palace building looking at the setting sun on the horizon. After such a productive and adventurous day, one would think he would have a face of satisfaction, or at least a smirk from his great accomplishment of saving the country, but nay. He instead had a face that looked puzzled, as if he was pondering some thoughts cooped up in his mind, and he was. 'Why did she do that!? I offered her a chance to leave behind her life of crime...I even...Loved her...'

"You should be celebrating after your accomplishments, not moping." Said a voice from nearby. Tai Lung turned his head and noticed the Panda who had redressed into a new green tunic and golden cloak with black slacks who looked much cleaner than before. However, the Snow Leopard didn't respond to the Panda's remarks, instead he turned his head back at the sunset on the horizon. Po noticed the Leopard's negligence of him and he proceeded to walk up to the Leopard and sit down on the green shingles near his friend.

A silence lasted between the two until the Panda eventually spoke up, "You know, this wasn't the first time there was an issue with the Gong Lu Medallion." This seemed to attract the Leopard's attention and he turned his head and asked, "What do you mean?" Po smiled a bit and replied, "You may not believe me when I say this, but the first issue there was with the Medallion concerned your nephew-" "WHAT!? I HAVE A NEPHEW!?" The Leopard almost yelled in shock from the revelation. Po chuckled at his friend's reaction, to be fair, it was a very big revelation that the Snow Leopard most likely wasn't ready for. Then the Leopard continued to rant, "WHY DID NOBODY SAY ANYTHING!?" "Hmm, I guess it never crossed my mind..." The Panda replied with a confident smirk. Tai Lung seemed irritated with the Panda's ignorance to this major revelation, he responded by punching the Panda on the shoulder and began to rant, "When did this happen!? What is his name!? Where can I find him!?" The Panda was bombarded by the Leopard's questions and he tried to slow him down, "Okay there. One question at a time Tai."

 **Minutes Later after a Long Conversation…**

"So you're saying that nearly 4 years ago, just after you had sent me to the spirit realm, some other Snow Leopard named Peng came to the palace claiming he was related to me? And that he was proficient in martial arts? And that he now teaches martial arts clubs across the country?" Tai Lung asked as he tried to sum up everything which the Panda had just told him. Po nodded and replied, "That's about it, though it has been a long time since he last visited here so I don't know his current whereabouts." At that, Tai Lung got up from a seated position and jumped off the roof towards the student barracks and made his way over to his room. Po knew exactly what his friend was doing, he was going to search across the country for his nephew. Po had no intention of stopping him either, this was his choice and he would go at it alone, but he knew that his friend would once again return someday.

"Farewell, Master Tai Lung..." Po said to himself as he watched the Snow Leopard who had just packed begin to leave through the Palace gates. "Until we meet again..."

The End

 **A/N: Thanks for reading through this entire series! I would humbly like to thank all of the readers who contributed by favoriting, following and reviewing the story. Now that this story is done, I will begin to work on the sequel to the fanfic this was based off of: Dark-Bright. The first chapter of that will be published shortly after this, so stay tuned! If you enjoyed reading this story, favorite or**

 **Review!**

 **Thanks**

 **-Ace_Risk**


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